Ahead of No. 22 Indiana volleyball’s match against Ohio State, it had played just one game inside of its home gym, Wilkinson Hall, since Sept. 5.
The Hoosiers had trips to Chicago, Kentucky and Evanston, Illinois, before returning to Bloomington on Sept. 27 and defeating Washington. Indiana then went to Los Angeles for a weekend followed by a trip to Michigan and a stop at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where it was the designated home team.
Across those 12 contests, Indiana recorded just three losses and knocked down two ranked opponents in then-No. 17 USC and then-No. 24 UCLA. But two of the Hoosiers’ losses were consecutive defeats to Michigan State on Oct. 12 and No. 12 Purdue on Thursday, putting Indiana on a two-game losing skid for the first time this season ahead of its contest Sunday.
“We all woke up really pissed off when we lost against Purdue,” Indiana senior opposite hitter Avry Tatum said after the win. “So we kind of just took that as motivation into this match and that was like the biggest thing that we did.”
While Tatum and the Hoosiers carried that emotion into the match against the Buckeyes, they looked sluggish from the start. Ohio State started the first set with a 3-0 run in which 2 points came off attack errors from Tatum.
Indiana went on a run of its own to take a small lead over Ohio State and ultimately won the set. In the second set, the Hoosiers struggled to find any rhythm and fell 25-18. Indiana once again looked sluggish in the third and fourth sets, but gained momentum late to win the match 3-1 over the Buckeyes on Sunday afternoon at Wilkinson Hall.
The win improved the Hoosiers’ record to 15-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten. The 15 wins matches Indiana’s total from last year, and the Hoosiers’ season is just over halfway through.
Indiana head coach Steve Aird said the biggest thing he wants his squad to carry into the rest of the season is “rest.” He told his team to take care of themselves, recover from the travel and be ready to work hard Tuesday when practice starts for the week.
“I just think they need to take a deep breath, you know,” Arid said. “Purdue was really emotional. We were super bummed we didn’t get it done and then we just were in the mud a lot today, so we found out way out of it.”
Tatum recognized that the win over a struggling Ohio State team — which has recorded just three wins this season, all of which were nonconference — was essential for Indiana to “continue on doing what we want to do.”
“I think October’s a grind,” Tatum said. “And I think we kind of have the mindset coming into this game like ‘We need to get back into the groove of things.’ And I think Ohio State’s a really good team, so we kind of just had to buckle down on the scouting report and everything that we needed to do in order to win this match.”
Freshman outside hitter Jaidyn Jager and Tatum said with the consecutive losses ahead of the match, there was an element of added pressure on the Hoosiers’ ability to pull off a win at their home gym.
The duo was right. Over halfway into the season, it was crucial for Indiana to stop the string of losses, especially with a slew of ranked matchups left on its schedule — starting with No. 18 Minnesota on Oct. 24 at Wilkinson Hall.
During the match, the NCAA D1 women’s volleyball committee released the in-season top 16. The committee put the Hoosiers at No. 14, which reflects what seeding the committee would give teams if the 2025 NCAA Tournament started today. For the top 16, the committee considers “strength of schedule, top-10 wins and head-to-head competition,” among other factors in its rankings, according to the NCAA website.
Indiana hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2010 when it had an overall record of 23-12 and won its first two tournament matches before falling to USC.
The win over Ohio State brought Indiana one step closer to making its return to the tournament.
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana volleyball season.
