Swimmers look to ‘snowball’ Volunteers

The snowball effect is often seen in cheap Saturday morning cartoons, with characters hopelessly running away from an ever-expanding snowball as it bounds down a hill.\nIU coach Ray Looze hopes the snowball effect his women’s swimming and diving team is creating will muster enough momentum to last until the Big Ten Championships in February. \nThe momentum started with a first-place finish in the Notre Dame Invitational last weekend. The Hoosiers will try to continue their success Friday in a dual meet at No. 9 Tennessee.\n“I’d love to see the women build on last week and take that momentum that was created and just keep it snowballing and building toward the end of the season,” Looze said. “We built a lot of confidence, showed some people we’re not what they thought we were.”\nThe team, which started the season ranked in the top 25 but dropped out after a 1-4 start, has been reenergized with the addition of sophomore transfer Kate Zubkova. The swimmer from Ukraine has competed with her national team since 2003, representing her country in the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2007 FINA World Championships. After training with the national team all season, she became eligible to compete for the Hoosiers at the beginning of the semester and has made an immediate impact on the team.\nShe recorded six first-place finishes in the Notre Dame Invitational, including an NCAA A standard time of 54.18 in the 100-yard backstroke. For her performance, she was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week and the CollegeSwimming.com National Swimmer of the Week.\nAs for Friday’s meet in Knoxville, Tenn., the coaching staff envisions a building process to work towards the important meets at the season’s end. \nIU diving coach Jeff Huber said his divers were fatigued following the Notre Dame meet. He said he doesn’t want to wear them out before the first meets.\n“We try to really look at what we need to do now in order to look good at the end of the season for the championship part of the season,” he said. “Tennessee is a great diving program and Dave Parrington is a great diving coach, so we know we’ll have our hands full with his team.”\nLooze said the fact that the No. 9 Volunteers are 4-1 this season doesn’t faze him. \n“We’re just going to worry about ourselves, not anybody else,” he said. “Not the fact that they’re the No. 9 team in the country. They’re a nameless face to us. We want to go in there, take care of our business, worry about ourselves and walk out with some real high confidence leading into the Big Ten and Purdue.”