Coming into the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals, Indiana volleyball depended on its pin hitters for offensive production. When the Hoosiers needed a point, they could always look to its trio of attackers for an answer.
Seniors Candela Alonso-Corcelles, Avry Tatum and freshman Jaidyn Jager make up that trio for Indiana. Ahead of the regional semifinals match, each averaged over three kills per match and tallied 389, 353 and 374 kills, respectively.
However, against the University of Texas at Austin, the Hoosiers pin hitters were disrupted by the Longhorns block and unable to generate their typical efficient offense, resulting in a three-set loss Friday at Gregory Gymnasium in Austin, Texas, in the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals.
“You got a punchers chance in game two and a punchers chance in game three and you’re kind of right where you need to be,” Indiana head coach Steve Aird said postgame. “You just got to make a play or two.”
And normally, Indiana could turn to its trio of pin hitters in those moments. However, the Longhorns ensured that couldn’t happen.
Texas shut down the Hoosiers’ pin hitters and forced the Cream and Crimson to find offense elsewhere. The Longhorns tallied 12 blocks on the night, forced Indiana into 23 attacking errors and held the Hoosiers to an attacking percentage of .217.
While Indiana’s middle blockers stepped up and contributed valuable offense, it was not enough to overcome Texas.
Middle blockers in senior Madi Sell and freshman Victoria Gray provided a combined 15 kills and committed just one error. Sell finished the night with a hitting percentage of .778, while Gray finished hitting .700.
However, the trio of pin hitters were each held to under .200 attacking percentages. Alonso-Corcelles led with 13 kills but committed five errors and only hit .195 throughout the match.
Tatum came up with six kills throughout three sets. However, those kills were accompanied by six attacking errors to finish the night hitting .000.
Jager returned to the court off a 15-kill match against the University of Colorado Boulder on Dec. 5 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the freshman attacker was disrupted by the Texas defense, and at times, demonstrated her youth as errors stacked. Throughout the match, Jager accumulated nine kills, but committed eight errors to finish the night hitting just .050.
In addition to the disruptive Texas defense, Indiana did not have an answer for the Longhorns’ junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford. Stafford finished the match with 19 kills, 0 errors, four blocks and an attacking percentage of .679.
While the Hoosiers were able to compete with the Longhorns, they were never able to find the floor on critical plays and couldn’t get past the top seeded Texas.
Despite the loss, Indiana has a lot to be proud of as it finished the season with a 25-8 overall record and broke multiple program records. The Hoosiers broke a single-season program record number of wins, regular season wins, conference wins, road wins, ranked road wins, and advanced to its second NCAA regional semifinal in school history.
“They’re a really connected team,” Aird said. “Clearly had an unbelievable season, made history and given a little bit of time and space, I think they’ll look back with tremendous pride at the fact they did something that no other Indiana program has ever been able to do.”
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana volleyball season.
