Indiana University Athletics
Indiana Trounces Evansville
9/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
September 7, 2002
Bloomington, Ind. - After blowing an 8-1 lead in the fifth and deciding game of last evening's 3-2 loss to Dayton at the TIS/Imprinted Sportswear Classic at the University Gymnasium in Bloomington, Indiana couldn't wait to get back on the court to redeem itself for Friday's stunning, and disappointing, setback. The Hoosiers didn't have to wait long. Just over 12 hours later, Indiana returned to its home facility to take on Evansville in the second tournament match of the day. It was an ill-humored squad that met the Purple Aces as Indiana put jumped out to a quick lead in game one and cruised to a three-game victory, 30-19, 30-21, 30-19. Indiana will conclude its play in this weekend's tournament with a match vs. Cal. State-Fullerton at 7:30 p.m. In earlier action today, Dayton defeated Cal. State-Fullerton, 3-1.Despite the relatively easy win for the Hoosiers (4-1), tenth-year head coach Katie Weismiller wasn't thoroughly pleased with IU's performance.
"I think last night was a better performance," said Weismiller. "Today we just did enough to win but among the things that were encouraging was our ability to sustain our leads and not let Evansville make runs. That was a problem we had throughout last night's match vs. Dayton."
After the first game was tied 8-8, Indiana continually increased its lead and took a 19-14 on a kill by sophomore captain Katie Pollom (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) midway through game one. Junior Academic All-America candidate Melissa Brewer (Bloomington, Ind./North) ended the game with a kill that provided the Hoosiers with a 30-19 victory.
"We came out ready to play today after a really disappointing match last night," said Pollom. "Today we just seemed to overmatch them physically."
Throughout game two, Indiana maintained a fairly comfortable margin despite several runs by the Purple Aces (2-5) that narrowed Indiana's lead to a four- or five-points at different stages throughout the game. After taking a 15-8 lead on a kill by junior Monique Pritz (Columbus, Ind./East), Indiana saw its margin cut to 17-13 midway though the game. Indiana answered by scoring the next three points to take a 20-13 lead. Evansville again cut into the IU advantage and pulled to within 23-18 on an attack error by the Hoosiers. Sophomore setter Victoria Zimmerman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) answered by spreading the ball throughout the offense as a kill by Archibald gave the Hoosiers a 26-20 lead, Pritz pushed the IU advantage to eight points on a kill of her own, and Brewer gave the Hoosiers a 29-21 lead on their way to a 30-21 win.
The tone of the third game wasn't much different than the first two, yet Indiana looked more determined to end today's match in short order. Indiana jumped to a 6-1 lead in game three behind the strength of three Pollom kills and never looked back. After Evansville called a timeout trailing 18-8, the Purple Aces never got any closer than eight points for the remainder of the match. Freshman Ashley White (St. Charles, Ill./East), who saw her first home match action of her career with IU leading 20-9 in the third game, ended the match with a kill that gave the Hoosiers a 30-19 win.
"Offensively, when our passing is good we have the ability to terminate," said Weismiller. "Today, defensively it was a struggle because we were good from the service line and we took them out of their offense."
Indiana held a .322-.069 advantage in hitting percentage and Pollom led the Hoosiers with a .474 hitting percentage, trailed closely by junior Nikki Hill (Muncie, Ind./Central), who recorded a .471 percentage of her own. Zimmerman recorded 32 assists and senior libero Hillary Toivonen (Muncie, Ind./Burris) notched 13 digs.
"We just seemed to avoid the letdowns today," said Toivonen.
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