Indiana University Athletics
'Dig Pink' Night at U-Gym Friday Evening
10/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 7, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - It's a double dip weekend at University Gym, beginning with a Friday evening match versus Ohio State (14-3, 2-2), followed by the three-time defending national champion Penn State Nittany Lions (13-2, 3-1) coming to town for a Saturday night showdown. Both contests are set for 7 p.m. starts.
In addition to the strong competition presented by No. 4 Penn State and Ohio State (receiving enough votes to slot them in the top-30), Friday night is also IU Volleyball's annual "Dig Pink" night. The event is designed to create more Breast Cancer Awareness and fans are encouraged to wear pink to the match. In fact, all fans donning pink clothes earn a discounted admission of just three dollars, and the first 500 fans arriving to the gym will receive FREE Pink IU Volleyball shirts.
Friday's dual will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com for a fee of $2.99. Fans can head over to IUHoosiers.com on Saturday for a free audio broadcast of that match. Dave Leno will be on the call for both.
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 captured her first career school record last weekend at Iowa, running her block total to 526, the most ever for a Hoosier.
Benson has also nearly guaranteed herself the No. 1 slot for hitting efficiency as her .332 career clip is 42 percentage points higher than the next closest Hoosier. She has racked up 1,251 kills as well, 136 shy of the top-five.
Libero Caitlin Cox is also climbing up the career rankings. With nearly a season and a half left in Bloomington, Cox already owns the single-season digs mark and needs only 223 more to crack the career top-two.
In addition, Mary Chaudoin and Taylor Wittmer's career totals of 2.052 assists and 330 blocks slot them 7th and 8th all-time, respectively, in the those career categories.
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE
Head Coach Sherry Dunbar has led her Hoosiers to at least one non-conference tournament title in each of her four seasons in Bloomington, and a total of eight tourney crowns:
2007: Valparaiso Popcorn Classic
2008: IU adidas Classic
2009: Flo Hyman Invitational (U. of Houston), Hamption Inn Invitational (Ohio University)
2010: Courtyard Marriott Georgia Tech Classic, IU adidas Classic, Niagara/Canisius Tournament, Miami Best Western Invitational
BIG TEN DOING BIG THINGS
Any doubt that the Big Ten is one of the nation's two toughest volleyball conferences is quickly erased when looking at the AVCA Coaches Poll Top-25. Seven conference schools are representing this week with two in the top-10, five in the top-25 and two additional teams receiving votes. The Pac-10 leads the country with six schools ranked in the top-25.
The Big Ten had an overall non-conference record of 106-17 (.862) heading into the weekend.
AND THEN THERE WERE 10
Indiana's 12-0 run to begin the season was the school's best start since 1997 and the second-best start to a season ever. The unblemished mark put IU in elite company as one of just 10 teams nationally to remain undefeated heading into the first week of conference play.
