Indiana Volleyball Falls in Five Sets Against Iowa

Saturday, October 26

Bloomington, Ind.

7:00 PM

Indiana University

12-11,1-9Big Ten

Iowa

8-12,2-7Big Ten

Iowa

Indiana

Indiana Volleyball Falls in Five Sets Against Iowa

10/26/2019 10:47:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.– The Indiana volleyball team traded sets with conference opponent Iowa, ultimately falling 3-2 (25-27, 25-20, 20-25, 25-14, 14-16) on Saturday at Wilkinson Hall.

Key Moments

In the first set against Iowa, the Hoosiers fought back from a 13-8 deficit with a 6-2 run to close the gap to 15-14. IU would take the lead at 17-16, but a 5-0 Iowa run gave the Hawkeyes a 21-17 lead.
With Iowa holding a 24-21 lead, IU fought off consecutive set points to make it 24-23 and force an Iowa timeout. The Hoosiers would go on to win the next two points on kills by Hayden Huybers and Kendall Beerman to go up 25-24. Iowa would respond by winning three straight points of their own to win the first set 27-25.
Iowa challenged a play in set two that would've closed the gap to 10-8 if reversed, but they lost the challenge and IU went up 11-7 on a Hayden Huybers kill. Iowa responded with a 7-2 run to take the lead at 14-13.
IU would push their lead back to four at 19-15 after a kill by Megan Sloan added to a 6-1 Hoosier run. The Hoosiers would go on to win by five with a score of 25-20 to take the second set.
With the score tied 7-7 in the third set, Iowa went on a 5-0 run to take an 11-7 lead and force an IU timeout. A Breana Edwards kill would end the run and close the gap to 11-8, but Iowa kept it going with another 5-0 run to take a 16-8 lead and force another IU timeout along the way.
Iowa would push their lead to 10 at 19-9, but the Hoosiers would fight back with an 11-5 run to close the deficit to 24-20 and force an Iowa timeout, fighting off two set points during the run. Iowa would go on to win set three 25-20.
The Hoosiers got out to a 13-9 lead in set four and would push their lead to 20-9 on the strength of a 7-0 run that included three blocks by Jacqui Armer.
IU would answer a late 2-0 Iowa run with back-to-back kills by Hayden Huybers and Breana Edwards and would go on to win the fourth set 25-14.
In the deciding fifth set, the Hoosiers found themselves down 7-5 before a 3-0 run featuring consecutive points by Kendall Beerman on a kill and a block gave them an 8-7 lead as teams switched sides.
IU challenged a play that would've given Iowa a 12-10 lead, but the Hoosiers were successful and won the challenge to tie the score at 11-11 on a Breana Edwards kill. IU would use that momentum to push to a 14-12 lead, but Iowa came back to win the match-clinching set 16-14.

Notables

The Hoosiers fell to 12-11 overall and 1-9 in Big Ten play. Iowa improved to 9-12 overall and 3-7 in the Big Ten.
Senior Deyshia Lofton eclipsed 400 career blocks during the match, tallying six on the night. She is now four blocks away from moving into seventh on the IU career block list.
Sophomore Breana Edwards led the match with 19 kills and 54 attacks while hitting .259 (19-5-54). Edwards also notched her first double-double of the season with her 10 digs, while also adding three blocks.
Redshirt Junior Kendall Beerman (11) and senior Hayden Huybers (10) recorded double-digit kills for the Hoosiers. Beerman hit .261 with three digs and two blocks, while Huybers hit .348 and contributed one block.
Senior Victoria Brisack provided a team-high 26 while also adding six digs and two aces.
Freshman Emily Fitzner contributed a double-double and season high dig total for the second consecutive night with 21 assists and 14 digs. She finished the weekend with 37 assists and 27 digs.
Freshman Haley Armstrong was strong defensively, leading the Hoosiers with 15 digs while adding eight assists and two aces.
Seniors Jacqui Armer (7), Megan Sloan (6), and Deyshia Lofton (6) helped power the Hoosiers to 14 team blocks, marking the 10^th time IU has reached double-digit blocks in a match.

Up Next
Up next the Hoosiers hit the road to face rival Purdue in West Lafayette for their match on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 6:00p.m. EST.

Indiana Head Coach Steve Aird
"Congratulations to Iowa. They were down a few players, I thought that was a gritty performance and they found a way to win, so full marks to them. Certainly, an impressive effort. Obviously, it hurts. We've had three matches this year: we lost to Purdue by two, lost to Maryland by three, lost to Iowa by two. It's just trying to get over the hump. We get to 11 or 12 all in games and then find a way to make a few errors and make it easy on the opponent. It was a tough night, proud of the kids for battling. Obviously, it's on us as a staff to try to get over the hump. For long stretches of the night I didn't think we were great, but we battled, we found a way back. I thought we were good in game four and had an opportunity up 14-12 in the fifth, and that's really the story.

We've got a big match on the road against Purdue. It's a match a lot of people care about. I've been through this before; I've been through the rebuilds. I know that there are highs and lows, and peaks and valleys. I think you just have to be a pro and show up at work. I think that's what I'm telling the kids, that we're not getting blown out of matches, it's not like we're not in them, it's that we've got to find a way to finish. That's kind of the theme so far this year in a lot of the close matches. Not a lot of pouting, we'll get back to work tomorrow. Big match at Purdue on Wednesday and get back in the lab and go to work."