Hoosiers Conclude Preseason at USF Invitational

Friday, September 20

Tampa, Fla.

12:00 PM

Indiana University

Stetson

BLOOMINGTON, IN - SEPTEMBER 08, 2019 - Indiana Hoosiers Volleyball Team during the game between the Yale Bulldogs and the Indiana Hoosiers at Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington, IN. Photo By Ben Green/Indiana Athletics/Indiana Athletics

Hoosiers Conclude Preseason at USF Invitational

9/18/2019 9:37:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.– The Indiana volleyball team will close the non-conference portion of its schedule with a trip to Tampa, Fla., for the USF Invitational, hosted by the University of South Florida.

The Schedule

Friday September 20
12:00 p.m. vs. Stetson
7:00 p.m. vs. South Florida
Live Stats: https://bit.ly/2x8sUEF
Radio: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/indiana/

Saturday September 21
2:00 p.m. vs. South Florida
Live Stats: https://bit.ly/2x8sUEF
Radio: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/indiana/

Wilkinson Hall
Wilkinson Hall was dedicated on January 16, 2019. Wilkinson Hall is a multi-use training and performance center that is the new home venue for the Indiana Volleyball and Wrestling programs. The 3,000-seat venue is used as a competition facility for both Indiana Volleyball and Indiana Wrestling, as well as the practice facility for volleyball. Wilkinson Hall is named after IU alumnus Jay Wilkinson and his family, who have an incredible history of support for IU Athletics and its student-athletes.

The Bluegrass Battle
Last week the Hoosiers went 3-0 at the Bluegrass Battle hosted by Kentucky. Indiana picked up wins against Florida Gulf Coast, Cleveland State and No. 15 Kentucky. Deyshia Loftn was named the MVP of the tournament and Breana Edwards and Hayden Huybers were also selected to the All-Tournament Team. Lofton recorded 34 kills and hit .391 on the weekend. Lofton had a career-high 19 kills in the Hoosiers win over Cleveland State. Edwards led the Hoosiers with 36 kills and added 12 blocks, including eight solo blocks, over the three matches. Huybers had 13 kills and four blocks, including three kills and two blocks in the win over Kentucky.

The Win over Kentucky
The win over Kentucky was a significant win for the program. It was the Hoosiers first victory over Kentucky since 1996. It was also the first win for Indiana over a non-conference ranked opponent since 1998. The last Hoosier win on the road over a ranked opponent was 2013 at Michigan State.

In the Polls
The Hoosiers received 13 votes in the latest AVCA top-25 poll. The last time an Indiana volleyball team has been ranked was the 2010 season.

The 2019 Hoosiers
The Indiana volleyball team opens the 2019 season under second year head coach Steve Aird. In 2018, Aird took a team that had finished 1-19 in the Big Ten in 2017 to 7-13 in the conference, with a season sweep of Ohio State and win against No. 14 Michigan. The 2019 squad returns nine players, has nine new players and seven seniors.

Kicking Things Off at Home
After playing their entire non-conference schedule on the road in 2018, the Hoosiers are home for the first two weekends in the 2019 season. Indiana will play its first seven matches of the season at home. Last year the Hoosiers set a new average attendance record of 1,273 fans per match in the final season at University Gym. In their first two weekends of matches in Wilkinson Hall, the Hoosiers averaged 1,691 fans per match.

Returning Hoosiers
The Hoosiers return 2018 All-Big Ten Deyshia Lofton, who will be a senior this year. Lofton recorded 281 kills and hit .336 on the season. Lofton is 11 blocks from cracking the top 10 in program history for career blocks. Breana Edwards returns after a freshman season in which she led the team in kills with 360. Edwards traveled to Japan this summer with the Big Ten foreign tour team. Bayli Lebo will be a junior this season. In 2018 Lebo set the Indiana single season digs record with 525 for the season. Hayden Huybers hit .334 in Big Ten matches last season, the fourth best in school history. Kendall Beerman returns after she saw her 2018 cut short due to injury.

The New Hoosiers
There are nine new Hoosiers that were not on the 2018 roster, including five transfers and four freshmen. Emily Fitzner, First Team Under Armour All-American will be a freshman setter. Fitzner is the sister of former IU basketball player Evan Fitzner. Megan Sloan returns home to Indiana after three seasons in Louisville. Sloan is the daughter of Brian Sloan, a member of the 1987 IU men's basketball national championship team. Sloan's teammate on that 1987 team, Jeff Oliphant has his daughter Sophie, who will be a freshman on the 2019 volleyball team as well. Haley Armstrong, member of the Canadian Junior National Team, will be a freshman defensive specialist for the Hoosiers. Jacqui Armer transferred to Indiana after three seasons at LSU.

IU Head Coach Steve Aird
"Obviously a cool weekend for us. We had a fantastic win against an exceptional opponent at Kentucky. Went 3-0, and that's not to overlook the other two teams that were there. They're going to win a ton of matches, and they were some great RPI wins for us. Thought we battled through some injury. You know, we beat Kentucky minus three starters and that to me is pretty awesome when you talk about depth. I told everyone at the start of the year it's nice to have some depth where we can bring some people in and move some people around. Again, big week in a lot of ways.

I think we're a week away from the Big Ten, but we're playing opponents that have good teams and have trained hard. First match is Stetson and we've spent the whole week worried about them. So that's the next match on the calendar for me and it's all I'm spending my time worrying about. I know South Florida went four sets with Florida, went five sets with Long Beach, I mean it's a team that's real and they do a lot of really good stuff. So, they've got my attention as well. We're going to try to, on the back half of this week before we travel, learn a little bit more about them, keep working on our systems, tighten some stuff up. We're in a pretty good position. I think a healthy position where if we take care of business and have a good weekend, we're in a great place going into conference play and then you know we'll worry about that when we get to that."

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