Indiana University Athletics
Crucial Weekend Awaits IU Volleyball
10/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 28, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Winners of five of their last six matches and part of a five-team tie for fourth place in the Big Ten Conference, the IU Volleyball squad embarks on a crucial road trip this weekend.
Indiana heads to Happy Valley for a rematch with the three-time defending national champion No. 9 Nittany Lions of Penn State (17-4, 7-3) Friday night. Indiana notched a 3-1 victory over PSU earlier this season inside University Gym. The Hoosiers then jump over to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes (17-6, 5-5) in a Saturday night showdown.
The Penn State match has been moved up to a 6:30 pm start and will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com and will be re-aired on the Big Ten Network Monday, Nov. 1 at 2 pm. Saturday is a 7 pm start. Log on to IUHoosiers.com for a free, live broadcast of both matches.
IU 2, STATE OF MICHIGAN 0
On Oct. 23, Indiana capped off a weekend sweep of then-No. 13 Michigan and Michigan State. It marked IU's first win over the Wolverines since 2006, and the fastest IU has reached 17 wins in program history.
After sweeping U-M and pulling off a five-setter versus MSU, Ashley Benson was named the Big Ten's Defenisve Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. She was also tabbed as CVU.com's National Player of the Week, her second such honor.
RECORD BOOK ONSLAUGHT
With two single-season school records (hitting percentage, total blocks) already on her resume, senior middle blocker Ashley Benson now has the career record books in her sights.
She set the school's all-time record most career blocks earlier this season and is now simply piling on to the mark with 569 stuffs heading into the weekend.
Benson has also nearly guaranteed herself the No. 1 slot for hitting efficiency as her .333 career clip is 43 percentage points higher than the next closest Hoosier. She has racked up 1,316 kills as well, 71 shy of the top-five.
Libero Caitlin Cox is also climbing up the career rankings. With at least 10 matches and an entire 2011 season left in Bloomington, Cox already owns the single-season digs mark and needs only 119 more to crack the career top-two.
In addition, Mary Chaudoin and Taylor Wittmer's career totals of 2,158 assists and 353 blocks slot them 7th and 8th all-time, respectively, in the those career categories.
