Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Continue Road Slate At Two Ranked Opponents
10/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Minnesota/Wisconsin Notes
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Oct. 12, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. The Indiana volleyball team will continue its 2006 Big Ten road slate by traveling to No. 23 Minnesota and No. 14 Wisconsin. The Hoosiers will face off against the Gophers on Friday, Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. (ET) at the Sports Pavilion and will take on the Badgers on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 2 p.m. (ET) in the Wisconsin Field House.
LAST TIME OUT
The Hoosiers fell at Iowa, 3-0, on Friday, Oct. 6. Leading the way for the Hoosiers in the match was sophomore Erica Short with 14 kills and junior Lauren Ditteon added seven of her own.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
Minnesota enters the matchup with a record of 11-5 overall and 5-1 in the conference. The Gophers are also a perfect 5-0 in the Sports Pavilion. Leading the way offensively for Minnesota is Kayla Roehrig with 213 kills. She is followed by Meredith Nelson with 183 kills and Jessy Jones, who has tallied 163. On the defensive side, Malma Peniata has 210 digs thus far on the season, while Jones leads the team with 84 total blocks (12 solo, 72 assisted). Roehirg also has 50 blocks on the year (22 solo, 28 assisted).
In the all-time series, the Gophers lead at 37-13. They swept both meetings between the two teams in 2005 and the Hoosiers have not defeated Minnesota since a 3-0 sweep in University Gym on Sept. 26, 2003.
SCOUTING WISCONSIN
Wisconsin enters the weekend with a record of 12-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference. Brittney Dolgner leads the Badgers with 201 kills on the season, and she is followed by Maria Carlini with 178. Three other members of the team have triple-digit kills. On the defensive side of the ball, Jocelyn Wack leads the team with 254 digs, while Taylor Reineke is the top Badger blocker. She has tallied 94 total blocks on the season (10 solo, 84 assisted), while Amy Bladow has 69 total blocks entering the weekend (nine solo, 60 assisted).
In the all-time series, Wisconsin leads 37-18. The Badgers took both matches in 2005, and the Hoosiers have not won a meeting between the two teams since a 3-2 win at University Gym on Oct. 12, 2002.
JAMMING THE GYM
Against No. 13 Ohio State on Sept. 30, Indiana set a new attendance record at University Gym. During the "Jam The Gym" promotion, the Hoosiers welcomed 1,362 fans to the match. That number broke the previous all-time mark, 1,267, which had been set on Oct. 21, 2005, against Purdue.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Senior Sara Diehl stands in 14th place on the all-time career digs list. The Bloomington, Ind., native has 785 digs entering the weekend, just one shy of Karen Dunham (1984-87), who holds 13th place. With seven more this weekend, Diehl will catch Anne Eastman, who tallied 792 digs between 1991 and 1994.
SETTING NEW MARKS
In the victory over No. 19 Michigan on Sept. 15, Indiana had 23 total blocks, the third-best performance in the program's history. It is also the most blocks in a five-game match in Indiana history. The 10 solo blocks recorded by the team also stands as a tie for fourth in program history and ties the most ever in a five-game match.
Emily Zulauf set a new career-high with 14 kills, shattering her previous career-best (eight) that was set the previous weekend against Mercer. Erica Short and Annie Moddrell each had three solo blocks in the win, which ties them with former Hoosier Rachel Gerling for first on the all-time list in five-game matches.
DEFENDING THE NET
The Big Ten Conference named junior middle blocker Annie Moddrell its Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 25. The honor was the first of Moddrell's career.
The Freeburg, Ill., native helped the Hoosiers to a split in the first weekend of Big Ten play, including opening with an upset of No. 19 Michigan. The win over the Wolverines marked the first time since 2003 that Indiana had opened the conference slate with a victory.
In the win over Michigan, Moddrell was part of an Indiana team that tallied 23 blocks, which marked the third-best total in program history. Her three solo blocks against the Wolverines were part of IU's 10 solo blocks that equaled the Hoosiers' five-game match school record. Along with sophomore Erica Short, who also had a trio, Moddrell's three solo blocks tied her with former Hoosier Rachel Gerling for first all-time in five-game matches.
In the closing match of the weekend, Moddrell had 10 kills, one solo block and five block assists against Michigan State. For the weekend, she totaled 18 blocks and posted 17 kills on .261 hitting.
SUCCESSFUL OPENERS
14 up, 14 down. The Hoosiers improved to a perfect 14-0 in season openers under head coach Katie Weismiller after defeating Akron in three games (30-24, 30-28, 30-21) on Aug. 25. In its 31st season, Indiana has compiled a 24-7 record in season-opening matches. IU's last loss in a season-opening match was a three-game sweep at Kentucky on Sept. 4, 1992.
RAKING IN THE HONORS
Senior Lauren Ditteon was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 West Virginia Tournament. The junior, who was also named the IU Student-Athlete of the Week following her performance at the tournament, wrapped up her three matches with 33 kills and just five errors in 68 attempts for a .412 hitting percentage on the weekend.
In addition to Ditteon's honor, sophomore Erica Short and senior Sara Diehl were named to the West Virginia Tournament All-Tournament Team. Short was also named to the All-Tournament team following the TIS Bookstore Invitational and the Marriott Flyer Invitational.
DID YOU KNOW?
With its five-match winning streak to open the season, it marked only the fourth time in the Katie Weismiller era that the Hoosiers have captured their first five or more matches. The feat had previously been accomplished in 2000 (seven), 1999 (nine) and 1997 (15). All five of those victories were 3-0 sweeps, the first time that feat has occurred in Indiana volleyball history.
500 WINS
With its win over Oakland on Aug. 26, Indiana notched its 500th win as a program. Indiana entered the season with 498 wins in the school's history.
SAME PLACE, NEW FEEL
When the Hoosiers take to the court in University Gym, the building may be the same, but the playing surface is brand new. This fall season will mark the debut of the new state-of-the art hardwood playing surface, a change from the SportsCourt floor that had been part of the facility since IU Volleyball began calling the facility home in 1996.
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE
The Indiana volleyball match on Nov. 10 will be televised on Comcast SportsNet Chicago (CSN Chicago) as part of the Big Ten Conference's 14-match television lineup, the conference office has announced. The 2006 television schedule will feature each conference school in action at least once during the volleyball season on three different networks.
BATTLING THE BIGS
According to the CSTV/AVCA poll, Indiana has six ranked opponents on its schedule this season. Big Ten foes Penn State (No. 2), Purdue (No. 9), Wisconsin (No. 14), Ohio State (No. 16) and Minnesota (No. 23) are all in the top 25, as is early-season foe LSU (No. 13).
SIXTH TIME'S A CHARM
The Indiana volleyball team earned the prestigious Game Plan/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the 2005-06 season. It is the sixth time that IU has been awarded the honor and the second season in a row. The Hoosiers, who also won the award in 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2004-05, are the only Big Ten volleyball program to earn the honor in 2005-06.
The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors college and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average during the school year.
