Volleyball team loses two on the road

When asked how she felt about her team’s performance over the weekend, IU volleyball Coach Sherry Dunbar was very straightforward.

“Probably one of the worst weekends of the season,” she said. “I was very disappointed in the Ohio State match. I was disappointed in our fight and how we came out in that match and didn’t really battle.”

On Friday, the Hoosiers (9-16, 1-13) took on an Ohio State team (16-10, 4-10) that had not won a match since Oct. 5, when it last played IU.

The Buckeyes won the match in three sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-20).

“Ohio State came out really hungry for a win,” IU senior outside hitter Jordan Haverly said. “They executed their game plan against us really well.”

IU was led by junior middle blocker Morgan Leach and sophomore outside hitter Amelia Anderson, who each had seven kills.

Senior captain and libero Caitlin Hansen led the team in digs with eight, while freshman defensive specialist Taylor Lebo had seven.

Freshman setter Megan Tallman had a team high 30 assists for the Hoosiers.

“I thought our serve receive was pretty good,” Leach said. “It was great to come into an environment that is different than our gym and still be able to attack teams with our serving.”

Ohio State was led by senior Kaitlyn Leary, who had 19 kills, and was aided by freshman Taylor Sandbothe, who had 14 kills.

Senior Julia Mandolfo led the Buckeyes in digs with eight and also had four aces.
Junior Taylor Sherwin had 30 assists for Ohio State.

On Saturday, IU faced off against No. 2 Penn State (22-2, 13-1). The Nittany Lions swept the Hoosiers (25-16, 25-12, 25-11).

Penn State was able to jump out to quick leads in each set, and it doomed the Hoosiers.

“Penn State is the No. 2 team in the country, so obviously they are very good,” Haverly said. “It was hard for us to score, and their blocking was really effective.”

Penn State totaled 15.5 blocks in the match in an area that Dunbar said the Nittany Lions excel due to their height.

IU also hit a mere negative .023 in the match, totaling 28 errors to go with only 26 kills. Penn State hit .427 with 42 kills and only five errors.

IU was led by Haverly, who had eight kills, while sophomore middle blocker Awele Nwaeze added six.

Hansen led the squad with 13 digs, and Tallman was the assist leader with 24.
Penn State was led by senior Deja McClendon, who had nine kills.

Junior Micha Hancock led the team in digs and assists with eight and 24 and had three aces.

“We weren’t as aggressive as we should have been,” Haverly said. “I think when we are more aggressive we actually make fewer errors because we aren’t trying to be careful and place the ball, so it seems to work out better for us.

“If we could train ourselves to not think and just go for it it would help us out.”

Follow reporter Andrew Vaillencourt on Twitter @AndrewVcourt.