Hoosiers hang tough against top-ranked teams

Game one of Friday night's volleyball match against the No. 9 Ohio State Buckeyes saw a hard-fought OSU lead at 13-9, only to have the Hoosiers claw back to a 25-24 deficit, before the Buckeyes wone the game, 30-27. Such was the weekend for the Hoosier women's volleyball team.\nThe Hoosier team came into the weekend facing two top-ranked teams with No. 9 Ohio State Friday, and the perennially powerful No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions Saturday. \nDespite the tough opponents, the Hoosiers were not intimidated in either match. \nAfter Ohio State beat the Hoosiers in game one, the Buckeyes gained their footing in game two, turning the momentum around.\nThe second game of the matchup saw Ohio State jump out to an early 8-2 lead and they never looked back. The Buckeyes scored 10 straight points until senior setter Disney Bronnenberg's service ace put the score at 18-4. Ohio State went on to win the game 30-12. \nThe final game of Friday's match saw much of the same, as OSU jumped out to a 13-3 lead and never looked back until a final OSU win of 30-14. \nStatistical leaders for Friday's game include senior Anne Botica with 15 kills, along with freshman Stacey Gordon with 14 kills for Ohio State, while IU's freshman Christina Archibald put up eight kills along with sophomore Melissa Brewer's seven for the Hoosiers. \nIU was optimistic because of their strong start.\n"I felt like we came out in game one and we played some of our best volleyball we've seen all year. We came out, we competed, offensively we were on, we just gave up a few defensive keys," coach Katie Weismiller said.\nThe positive first game performance came truncated by the relatively dismal second and third games.\n"The first game we actually came out ready play," junior outside hitter Hillary Toivonen said. "Usually we have a little trouble coming out right at seven o'clock. We actually did that, but it didn't just carry over to the second game."\nBrewer agreed with Toivonen's appraisal of the situation.\n"The hard thing is that, this year we've really worked on coming out the first game," Brewer said. "Tonight we really showed that we can do that. The hard thing is we didn't do what we haven't been doing all year, and that's coming out in the second and third games and working hard." \nThe problem did not show itself on Saturday night against Penn State.\nGame one saw a nose-to-nose battle with ties at five and seven. Penn State then jumped out to a 16-9 lead until IU made a powerful run to tie the game at 25. The teams traded points until a final kill by Penn State junior Mishka Levy ended the game at 34-32.\nGame two brought another close battle with IU taking an 14-11 lead and never looking back for a 30-24 victory. The charge was led by Brewer and Archibald along with Toivonen stepping out of character with some powerful kills.\nGame three was yet another close battle that ended in a 30-22 PSU victory.\nFinally, game four of Saturday night's volleyball match saw a hard-fought PSU lead at 19-12. The Hoosiers pulled themselves back to a 22-22 tie, only to see the Nittany Lions take the game, 30-25.\nSuch a close match against the Penn State team brought confidence to the IU squad.\n"The players were upset that we lost, but it feels so much better tonight because it's the first time we played our hardest the whole entire time," senior defensive specialist Crecia Keithley said.\nWeismiller gave an example from the first game.\n"We gave up a string of points and we could have easily continued in our ways and said, 'Oh no, they're ahead.' Instead we fought back, we fought back and got right back into the match"