Volleyball Fall to No. 1 Wisconsin

Friday, February 12

Bloomington, Ind.

4:00 PM

Indiana University

2-5,2-5Big Ten

#1 Wisconsin

7-0,7-0Big Ten

Wisconsin

Indiana

2/12/2021 6:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)WATCH: STEVE AIRD WATCH: BROOKE WESTBELD

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.- In its first home match in two weeks, Indiana volleyball dropped the opening match of a two-game set with No. 1 Wisconsin 3-0 (21-25, 17-25, 13-25) on Friday afternoon.

KEY MOMENTS

Leyla Blackwell started IU's offensive account with two kills and a block to begin the first set.
Leyla Blackwell followed up her hot start with a block on All-American Dana Rettke to win IU a huge rally.
Haley Armstrong's serve causes confusion amongst the Badgers and results in a service ace to give IU a 6-5 lead in the first set.
Savannah Kjolhede and Tommi Stockham come up with back-to-back blocks to put IU up 10-8 in the first set.
In the middle of the first game, IU goes on a 4-0 run to take a 11-8 lead on No. 1 Wisconsin
Following an assist from Emily Fitzner, Tommi Stockham puts away a kill to give the Hoosiers a 13-10 advantage.
Haley Armstrong's diving dig keeps the rally alive before a Wisconsin kill gives the Badgers the point.
Breana Edwards comes up with the huge block to stop a Wisconsin 3-0 run in the first set.
Morgan Geddes and Savannah Kjolhede combine for a block to put the Hoosiers back up 16-15.
Following an IU timeout, Morgan Geddes records a solo block to stop the Wisconsin momentum.
Wisconsin ultimately takes the first set 25-21 despite four kills and nine blocks from IU freshmen.
Breana Edwards begins the second set with a huge kill to bring the Hoosiers within one at 3-2.
Leyla Blackwell and Breana Edwards combine for a block to halt the Wisconsin momentum early in the second game.
After a Steve Aird timeout, Morgan Geddes comes up with another huge kill to bring IU within three points.
Emily Fitzner records a service ace following a short serve that falls in front of the Wisconsin players.
As part of a 3-1 run, Tommi Stockham picks up another key kill.
Back-to-back service aces from Haley Armstrong help spark a 3-0 IU run to kill the Wisconsin momentum.
Savannah Kjolhede records another kill late in the second set but Wisconsin takes the second game 25-17.
To begin the third, Savannah Kjolhede earns a dig off a hard attack that results in an over and a point to open the IU account.
Breana Edwards goes deep corner on a kill to put IU up 4-3 to begin the third game.
Tommi Stockham picked up a kill out of the back row to bring IU within 14-10 but Wisconsin would ultimately take the third set 25-13 and the match 3-0.

NOTES

The Hoosiers fell to 2-5 overall while No. 1 Wisconsin improved to 7-0 on the season.
Freshmen combined for 17 of the 21 kills that IU recorded on Friday afternoon.
Brooke Westbeld tallied 12 assists while Emily Fitzner finished with nine.
Haley Armstrong came up with 10 digs and three service aces in a productive afternoon for the sophomore defensive specialist. It was the sixth straight match Armstrong has posted double digit digs.
Savannah Kjolhede hit .444 and recorded five kills in her start against Wisconsin.
The Hoosiers recorded eight blocks in the first set against Wisconsin.
Wisconsin middle blocker Dana Rettke came into the match hitting .487 and Indiana held her to a .188 hitting percentage.
Armstrong tied for career-high with three aces.

IU Head Coach Steve Aird
"Highly disappointed. We hit negative on the match. We have too many good arms to hit negative. It's my fault. We tinkered with some stuff. I thought we passed pretty well. That's a great serving team. I thought defensively at the net we blocked a lot of balls, but against the No. 1 team in the nation, you just can't hit negatively and think you've got a shot.

I think early in the match they played poorly. If you asked them, I think they'll say they played poorly. You had a window to steal a match but we needed to put some real pressure on them and we're just not there yet. It's part of the process. Very rarely do you have a team that good, play that poorly and give you a window and that's what's frustrating to me. It's part of it.

We had most of our kids hit negative. They're a good blocking team but we out blocked them. Part of it is the ability to make good decisions and keep hitting the ball high, hard and flat and staying with the stuff we do in training. At times, we just veer from it and make some bad decisions.

Wisconsin is a great team and congratulations to them. I think game three was them playing really well and really clean and us getting a little soft and young. It's going to happen for a while and it's bumpy but I'm just a little disappointed in the effort after set one."

UP NEXT
IU welcomes the Badgers back to Wilkinson Hall tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. EST for the second of two matches between the programs this weekend.

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