After No. 15 Indiana volleyball was swept by No. 1 Nebraska on Thursday, the Hoosiers looked to rebound against USC on Sunday afternoon.
However, instead of putting the three-set loss behind it, the same result occurred Sunday, as Indiana was swept by USC (26-24, 25-19, 25-22) at Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington. The Trojans outperformed the Hoosiers in nearly every statistic, while three USC players had double-digit kills.
“Today, we got outplayed in every facet by a good volleyball team,” Indiana head coach Steve Aird said after the match. “We just didn’t do any phase that I was pleased with.”
Despite the sweep, all three sets were competitive.
In the first set, neither squad held more than a two-point advantage, and the teams tied 15 times with 11 lead changes. Indiana owned the advantage late in the set, when a kill from freshman outside hitter Sara Snowbarger put the Hoosiers ahead 24-22, setting up a set point.
USC redshirt senior outside hitter Adonia Faumuina responded with a kill to quiet the home crowd, prompting an Indiana timeout. After the break, the Trojans were relentless, scoring three straight points to complete the comeback and win the set.
The second set started close again, but a 7-1 run midway through granted USC a 16-10 advantage. Indiana tried to cut into the lead, including a 3-0 run, but USC shut down the comeback bid, taking the second set by six points.
Indiana gained a three-point lead over USC early in the third set, but a 6-0 run gave the Trojans the advantage. The two squads went back and forth before USC outscored Indiana 8-2 to take a five-point lead and set up a set point. Indiana scored three straight points to fight off USC’s imminent win, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the sweep.
The Trojans had more kills, a higher hitting percentage and fewer errors than the Hoosiers. But one of Indiana’s biggest struggles was slowing USC’s blocking attack. The Trojans average 2.91 blocks per set after Sunday, which ranks first in the Big Ten and among the top 10 nationally.
Junior middle blocker Mia Tvrdy leads that attack for USC, averaging 1.35 blocks per set. Against Indiana, the 6-foot-1 Tvrdy totaled four blocks — three assists and one solo. The four blocks helped Tvrdy to her 12.5 points Sunday.
While Tvrdy has led the Trojan’s blocking throughout the season, redshirt junior middle blocker Leah Ford led all players with six total blocks against Indiana. Ford recorded 13 points and a .727 hitting percentage.
“Their middles were phenomenal,” Aird said. “We had a really, really hard time getting in front of their middles... They had one error in the whole match.”
While Indiana recorded eight total blocks, some of its middle blockers struggled against USC.
Junior middle blocker Ella Boersema had four kills on a .083 hitting percentage, but Aird acknowledged that players and teams have “off nights.” Sunday was one of those games.
“You don’t beat up the group for having an off night,” Aird said. “The season’s not over. It's not one and done. You just have to be resilient enough to get back on the horse.”
Indiana is also still trying to figure out its rotations, a process that typically occurs during the preseason or nonconference. However, in the last two and a half weeks, the Hoosiers have added two players to their rotation.
Oppositive hitter Avry Tatum was granted a preliminary injunction, which gave her a fifth season of eligibility. She first returned to the court against Maryland on Sept. 26.
Against USC, junior outside hitter Izzy Clark made her season debut after dealing with a lower body injury throughout the beginning of the season. Clark, who transferred to Indiana from the University of San Diego, recorded one kill in her one set played Sunday.
“The blessing of having new players coming in is you have more depth and you got more players,” Aird said. “But the curse a little bit is you’re going to try to find it again. Almost like we're in a little blip, a preseason blip, where we’re trying to find it.”
After two consecutive sweeps, Aird knows there are areas where his squad needs to improve. While the Hoosiers’ record dropped to 10-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big Ten, Aird said this week is “valuable” for his team as they head into the rest of their conference schedule, which continues on the West Coast against Oregon at 9 p.m. Friday.
“It shows we got a long way to go in some areas,” Aird said. “But there were glimpses of what I think I think we’re capable of.”
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki87731 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana volleyball season.
