Hoosiers head to California for final tuneup before Big Ten play

With the Big Ten season one week away, the IU women’s volleyball team will travel to San Diego and play three games this weekend, including two against undefeated teams.

“We are going to have to bring our game every single day and every single minute of the day in order to compete at that high level,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said.

After sweeping the Hoosier Classic at home last weekend, the Hoosiers will begin their California road trip with a matchup against undefeated George Washington on Friday night.

George Washington is led by outside hitter Lauren Whyte, who is tied for 22nd nationally in kills per set with 4.42.

To combat Whyte and offenses this weekend, Dunbar said the team’s blocking needs to build off last week’s aggressive play.

“I think the biggest part of what we were talking about (last weekend) was attack blocking,” Dunbar said. “I thought they did a much better job of lining up with the hitters and then just being really aggressive with their hands, which I thought helped a lot.”

On Saturday, the Hoosiers will continue with an early match against UC-Santa Barbara and a late game versus the host team, No. 17 San Diego.

San Diego’s offense, which led the nation in kills per set and assists per set last year, is led by a trio of hitters that all have each more than 100 kills for the season.

Senior libero Caitlin Cox said the team needs to start this weekend with the same energy it finished with last weekend.

“We are playing some pretty good teams and if we are not ready, we are going to have our eyes opened really quick,” Cox said. “Getting focused and prepared is something we really need to keep working on.”

The Hoosiers’ trip to California will be the second road trip of the year so far.
Dunbar said the weekend in San Diego will be a good challenge for the team, while also giving it time to build chemistry off the court to create an identity on the road.

“We need to really challenge ourselves to create our identity of energy without our fan base behind us to help us figure it out,” Dunbar said.

“We are going to have to learn how to do that on the road in the Big Ten.”