Lowly Iowa visits Hoosiers

The IU women's volleyball team looks to finish up its season on a high note -- starting with a road match-up against the Iowa Hawkeyes.\nThe Hoosiers will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, Thursday in their final road trip of the year to face one of only two Big Ten teams they have beaten this year. \nIowa, who has struggled this season and lost its last 15 matches, has a 9-19 mark overall. The Hawkeyes round out the bottom of the Big Ten with a 1-15 conference record -- the only team with a worse conference record than IU, who's record is 8-19 overall, but 2-14 in the Big Ten. \nIn its latest loss, Iowa fell 3-0 to Michigan in Ann Arbor Nov. 13th.\nIU has also struggled in recent matches -- not being able to put the game philosophies they practice into action.\n"We have to get back our confidence," IU coach Katie Weismiller said. "We'll work on our skills this week and hopefully be able to put it all together."\nWhen the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers last met, Oct. 23 in Bloomington, the Hoosiers were on top of their game, putting away Iowa in straight sets, 3-0. \nSince that win, IU has lost six straight matches -- four of them without winning a game.\n"We've been pushing so hard recently," senior Christina Archibald said. "We just keep getting some bad breaks."\nThe bad breaks came to a climax last week when the Hoosiers played host to Purdue.\nAfter dropping the first game in the match, the team rallied to win the next two against the Boilermakers. Purdue won the fourth game and pushed the match to a fifth set which they won 15-13 on a questionable line call. \nThe comeback win by the in-state rival Boilermakers no doubt hurt the morale of the team as they went on to lose 3-0 to then No. 25 Illinois two nights later.\nDespite the bad breaks the Hoosiers have encountered, the bright spots remain. Freshman Juli Pierce recorded a total of 25 digs against Purdue and Illinois and sophomore Tasha Arsenych dished out 104 assists in IU's week-long home stand.\nThe senior leadership of Archibald and Katie Pollom also contributed in the string of home matches, combining for 67 kills last week.\nThe team hopes they can put its previous misfortunes behind them and put its game plan into action as the season winds down.\n"We just have to make sure we communicate out on the floor," sophomore Mandy Eberle said. "And we have to keep our focus."\nFollowing their match-up with the Hawkeyes, the Hoosiers will travel Saturday to Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers.\nThe Gophers are 24-4 on the season and are currently third in the Big Ten standings with a 13-3 conference record.\nFollowing the road trip, IU will return home for its final two matches of the season by battling Northwestern Nov. 26 and Wisconsin Nov. 27.\n-- Contact staff writer Kevin Dwire at kdwire@indiana.edu.