Freshmen Excel in Defeat Against Nebraska

Friday, January 22

Bloomington, Ind.

6:00 PM

Indiana University

0-1,0-1Big Ten

#5 Nebraska

1-0,1-0Big Ten

Nebraska

Indiana

1/22/2021 9:10:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.- After 419 days between matches, the Indiana volleyball team opened up the 2021 Spring season with a competitive 3-0 loss (22-25, 20-25, 17-25) to No. 5 Nebraska Friday night at Wilkinson Hall.

Key Moments

Indiana's starting lineup featured four freshmen, Tommi Stockham, Savannah Kjolhede, Leyla Blackwell and Morgan Geddes, who all made significant contributions in the match.
The first point of IU's season came from a kill by outside hitter Morgan Geddes.
Amidst a 4-0 run by IU in the first set, Tommi Stockham recorded a kill that resulted in a Nebraska timeout at 14-12.
Leyla Blackwell recorded a block late in the first set to bring IU within three points at 23-20.
Tommi Stockham recorded four kills in her first collegiate set but the Huskers ultimately took the first game 25-22.
Nine of the 10 kills in the first set came from freshmen.
Savannah Kjolhede came up with back-to-back services aces in the second set to stop the Nebraska momentum.
IU went on a 6-2 run in the middle of the second set to draw within one point at 11-10.
Late in the second set, IU went on a 3-1 run to draw within three points in due part to three Tommi Stockham kills.
Nebraska took the second set 25-20.
A kill by Morgan Geddes and a Nebraska ball handling error allowed IU to draw within 5-4 early in the third set.
Emily Fitzner had a service ace and Savannah Kjolhede had a big kill to halt Nebraska momentum in the third set.
A Tommi Stockham kill and Nebraska service error broke a 4-0 Husker run late in the third set.
Blocks from Tommi Stockham and Leyla Blackwell and a dig from Grae Gosnell kept alive a late rally that resulted in IU earning a much-needed point in the third set.

Notables

The Hoosiers fell to 0-1 overall while Nebraska went to 1-0 overall.
Indiana started four freshmen (Tommi Stockham, Savannah Kjolhede, Morgan Geddes, Leyla Blackwell).
Four of the five players to record kills for IU were freshmen including nine from Tommi Stockham and eight from Morgan Geddes. Stockham added five digs.
Haley Armstrong was hard at work all night with eight digs while Tommi Stockham came up with five of her own
Brooke Westbeld recorded 13 assists in her first game as a Hoosier
Morgan Geddes hit .5710 and Savannah Kjolhede hit .444 in their IU debuts
Leyla Blackwell recorded a team high four blocks followed by Stockham with three.

Up Next
IU and Nebraska return to Wilkinson Hall tomorrow night to finish off their conference series with a start time of 6:00 p.m. EST.

Indiana Head Coach Steve Aird

"Really excited that we got the season going. Obviously we played an excellent team. I think they would say they didn't have their best performance tonight and I would say that we competed pretty well for two games and then kind of got young and made some errors in the third.

On the whole, super proud of the kids. We started four freshmen and two sophomores and I thought they competed. They were in it for large stretches of time. I thought we got great performances from Tommi Stockham and Morgan Geddes. If we passed a little better, we could've gotten the ball to the two freshmen middles a little bit more.

Nebraska is a great team and I think it's an excellent chance to learn and grow. We're excited about going to work tonight and tomorrow morning trying to implement some stuff and get back after it tomorrow."