Hoosiers Travel to #12 Minnesota and Iowa

10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Oct. 8, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana University volleyball team (9-7, 1-3 Big Ten) packs their bags and hits the road this weekend for the first time in three weeks, heading up north for a pair of Big Ten contests. First up is the Golden Gophers of Minnesota (14-2, 4-0), ranked 12th in the latest AVCA national rankings, on Friday night, followed by a Saturday night showdown with the Iowa Hawkeyes (10-6, 2-2). Both matches are scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EST.

IUHoosiers.com will once again offer free, live audio broadcasts of both matches. Matt Taylor is set to call all the action. The pregame show will start approximately 10 minutes prior to match time.

Complete Match Notes

ON A GOOD PACE
We have reached the halfway point of the 32-match regular season and several all-time school records are in danger of being broken. If the following Hoosiers were to duplicate their statistical totals from the first half in the second half of the season, they would find themselves in next season's media guide and the single-season top ten lists: Short with 564 kills (1st), Benson with 186 blocks (1st), Benson with a .330 hitting efficiency (2nd) and Juli Pierce with 390 digs (5th).

BIG TIMING IN THE BIG TEN
Sophomore Taylor Wittmer has picked up her game since the Big Ten season got underway. In four matches against conference foes, Wittmer is hitting .341 with 41 kills.

HOOSIER HYSTERIA
Indiana Volleyball will once again kick off the Hoosier Hysteria festivities next week. The Ohio State Buckeyes must visit Assembly Hall on Oct. 17 in front of a huge crowd. At last season's Hoosier Hysteria volleyball match, a school-record 11,086 fans showed up to cheer on the volleyball squad take on Michigan State. That attendance number finished in the nation's top-five for largest volleyball crowds on the year.

MISS CONSISTENT
In the first four Big Ten contests, the opposition has attempted to attack IU's libero Caitlin Cox in the service game ... without much success. Cox has converted on her last 91 service reception attempts, a stretch of errorless receptions that runs all the way back to the Illinois match. Cox has seen 100 serves come her way thus far in the Big Ten season, committing a lone error for a .990 reception percentage.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Indiana's offense has had little problem racking up large kill totals this season, ranking in the national top-50 as a team and having the league's top kill-collector in Erica Short. Hitting efficiency has proven to be more essential for success, however. The Hoosiers are a perfect 8-0 when posting higher hitting percentages than the opposition, but have suffered three defeats when simply recording more kills.

BLOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF
For the season, Ashley Benson's 1.60 blocks per set are tops in the Big Ten and rank third nationally. As a team, the Hoosiers' 2.73 blocks/set are the fourth highest total in the conference and 18th in Division-I volleyball.

Benson's 93 blocks thus far put her on pace to shatter the all-time school record for most blocks in a single season. The current record is 155, putting Benson just 62 blocks away with 16 regular season matches to go.

Indiana's sweep of San Francisco earlier this season is arguably the best three-set blocking effort in school history. The school record for most blocks in a three-set match is 15 set back in 1996. However, the 14 rejections against USF were tallied in the new 25-point set era rather than the old 30-points per set format played in previous seasons.

SERIAL KILLERS
Erica Short leads the conference with her 4.86 kills per set pace and sits at second in the national rankings. As a team, Indiana's 13.59 average slots them sixth in the Big Ten and 45th on the national level.

LENDING A HELPING HAND
Setting up most of those kills is the duo of Mary Chaudoin and Hayley Koetter. Chaudoin averages 6.10 assists per set while Koetter chips in 5.47 helpers. Indiana's 12.81 team assists/set rank 27th nationally.