Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Drop First Match of Season
9/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
September 4, 2004
BOX SCORE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana volleyball team lost its first match of the season, 30-28, 32-30, 30-27, to Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon. IU is now 2-1 on the young season, while the Billikens improve to 3-0.
"We didn't play as aggressively as I would have liked today," said head coach Katie Weismiller. "I think the difference was we gave them some spurts and didn't play with the confidence we needed to be playing with. We gave them too many strings of points."
Game one was a seesaw affair that saw 10 tie scores and six lead changes. The largest lead for either team was four, which SLU held at 25-21. The Hoosiers scored the next two points to cut the deficit to a pair at 25-23.
Saint Louis built its advantage to three at 28-25 before senior Katie Pollom recorded a pair of kills to even the match at 28-28. However, the Billikens tallied the final two points of the match to take the opener, 30-28.
Pollom closed out the game with eight kills on 11 attempts, good for a .727 hitting percentage.
IU bounced back early in game two, jumping out to a 10-7 advantage. SLU tied things up at 10-10, but the Hoosiers grabbed 11 of the next 16 points for their largest lead of the match at 21-15.
Saint Louis cut the lead in half with a 7-4 run of their own to make it 25-22. Indiana maintained its lead at 28-26, when the Billikens evened the game for the eighth time at 28-28.
As was the case in the first game, Pollom tried to lift the IU down the stretch, pounding back-to-back kills to tie things at 30-30. But SLU finished strong once again, scoring the final two points and taking game two, 32-30.
In game three, the Hoosiers trailed 12-10, when senior Christina Archibald nailed three straight kills to level the game at 15-15. That would be the final tie of the match, as Saint Louis reeled off five of the next seven points and never trailed the rest of the way, earning the 30-28 victory.
Pollom finished the match with a team-high 17 kills, while Archibald added 14 kills and seven digs. Freshman Lauren Ditteon matched her season-high with 12 kills, and junior Mandy Eberle compiled six block assists, her third straight match with at least five block assists.
Billiken junior Aida Antanaviciute led everyone with 24 kills in addition to hitting .400, corralling seven digs and notching one block solo and six block assists.
In earlier action at the Invitational, Oregon State evened its record at 1-1, defeating Murray State, 3-1. Closing out the event Saint Louis will look to go 3-0 when it faces Murray State at 4:30 p.m. tonight. Following that match the Hoosiers return to the court against Oregon State at 7:30 p.m.
