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The Indiana Daily Student

sports volleyball

IU Volleyball named UConn Classic Champs

Last season, IU went 1-5 in matches that went to the fifth set.

It struggled because of the extreme youth of the team. The Hoosiers played 11 freshmen and sophomores last season and couldn’t handle the stress and pressure of playing in the fifth set, several players said this season.

In just the first weekend of the 2014 season, IU had a chance to prove how the team’s mentality has changed this offseason.

With the UConn Classic at stake, IU was able to win a five-set match.

“They looked calm,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said of her team’s demeanor in the fifth set against UConn. “There was definitely a quiet confidence about them that I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

IU went 3-0 in the season-opening UConn Classic, defeating Central Connecticut State, New Hampshire and UConn.

With the three wins this weekend, the Hoosiers have already won a third of the games they won throughout the entirey of last season, when they went just 9-22.

After beating Central Connecticut State and New Hampshire, IU was set to play UConn.

Both teams were 2-0 at that point, and the winner would be named the UConn Classic champion.

IU trailed 2-1 in sets through the first three sets against UConn.

That’s something the team struggled with last season — responding after being down, Dunbar-Kruzan said.

“Last year, if we were down, we would get rattled,” Dunbar-Kruzan said.

The Hoosiers were able to win the fourth set 25-21 and forced a winner-take-all fifth set, with the tournament title on the line.

The game was tight in the fifth set, sophomore setter Megan Tallman said.

Either IU was leading by one or two points or UConn was holding a slim lead during the final set.

Tallman said this year’s team showed an improved ability to stay calm under pressure and win important points down the closing stretch.

“I think last year’s team would’ve started to freak out a little bit,” Tallman said. “We stayed very calm. It was like a quiet confidence.”

IU won the fifth set 15-12 and took its first tournament title of the season.

With the win against the Huskies, the Hoosiers were named winners of the ?UConn Classic.

Senior outside hitter Morgan Leach was named tournament MVP.

Leach was among four IU players named to the all-tournament team, including Tallman, who had 55 assists and 10 digs in the all-deciding final match against UConn.

This year’s team isn’t much older than last year’s, as Leach is the team’s only senior.

But all the freshmen and sophomores from last year’s team are a year older, and players said they think the year of maturation will help them throughout this ?season.

“I think being a year older does help,” Tallman said. “But I think the time we spent this summer working out — and we just spent more time playing volleyball this summer helped us.

“And I think that’s where the quiet confidence comes from.”

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