IU volleyball drops 2 Big Ten matches over weekend

The IU volleyball team suffered its first winless weekend in conference play this weekend, losing to No. 8 Wisconsin and Illinois. \nFriday night, IU (14-10, 5-7) narrowly missed an opportunity to upset the Badgers. It took Wisconsin five games to defeat the Hoosiers (23-30, 20-30, 31-29, 30-28, 14-16). \nSaturday night did not go IU’s way either. After defeating Illinois earlier in the year at Champaign, Ill., in five games, the Hoosiers were defeated by the Illini 3-1 (26-30, 26-30, 30-26, 27-30) at home.\nIn Friday’s five-game thriller, IU got down early, losing the first two games. However, the team came back to win the next two games by margins of two points each. In the decisive fifth game, IU was able to take an early lead at 8-7. After swapping the next few points, the Hoosiers found themselves serving for match point up 14-12. However, IU’s upset bid was lost, as the Badgers took the next four points to win game five and the match.\n“I’m proud of them for showing up tonight with that intensity and that energy that they had, and for competing,” IU coach Sherry Dunbar said Friday night. “They could have just dropped after being down 0-2. For them to come back and fight that hard, it shows a lot of character about this team.”\nAfter recent struggles with her offensive production, junior outside hitter Erica Short led the Hoosiers with 23 kills, and she finished with an attack percentage of .375.\n“My struggles recently have been mostly a mental thing,” Short said. “Our sport psychologist and coach have helped me a lot.”\nTwo Hoosiers also had double-doubles in the match. Sophomore outside hitter Kelsey Hall finished the match with 17 kills and 12 digs, and senior right side Lauren Ditteon finished the match with 15 kills and 10 digs. \nSaturday against Illinois, as they did the night before, IU dropped the first two games of the match. IU took game three, in large part due to its defense, and limited Illinois to a .163 hitting percentage. \nIn game four, IU started quickly, gaining a 5-0 lead, then pushing that to 9-2. The lead would not hold, however, as the Illini fought back to take their first lead at 26-25 and never looked back, taking the game 30-27.\nIU had four players record double-digit kills, with Short leading the way with 17. Hall finished with 16, Ditteon with 12 and freshman middle blocker Ashley Benson had 11.\nThe weekend’s losses mark the first time this season the Hoosiers – now 5-7 in the Big Ten – ended a weekend below .500 in the conference. \n“We are a good team,” Ditteon said. “We played well against the No. 8-ranked team. We need to remember how we played in that game.” \nWith upcoming road games against Ohio State and No. 2 Penn State, Dunbar stressed the importance of practice this week to bounce back after this weekend’s play.\n“We have to work on the bad things from this weekend,” Dunbar said. “This week of practice is going to be very important. It’s tough to go on the road, but I know that we are going to be fired up, be really prepared.”