Despite not playing well, IU volleyball still had a chance to keep its perfect season going.
After losing the first two sets against the University of Illinois-Chicago, IU responded by winning the next two sets to force a winner-take-all fifth set against UIC.
It was a back-and-forth set. In NCAA volleyball rules, the fifth set is won by the first team to get to 15, and the team must win by two points.
UIC was able to hold on 18-16 and pulled off the upset. The loss was IU’s first this year.
After the game, IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan was blunt about how she felt about her team’s lackluster performance.
“We didn’t deserve to win that match,” she said.
IU (7-1) split its two games Friday in Chicago with the loss against UIC followed by a win against Eastern Kentucky in which the Hoosiers hit the ball at a much better rate.
But after both the games, the loss against UIC bothered Dunbar-Kruzan the most.
“We weren’t ready to play, to be honest,” she said. “When we stepped on that floor, we weren’t ready to go.”
She had to take key players out of the game against UIC to try and jump-start the stagnant Hoosier ?offense.
She said sophomore outside hitter Taylor Lebo, who is third on the team in kills this season, was struggling with illness and not playing at her best.
Dunbar-Kruzan had to take out Lebo, switch senior Morgan Leach to the opposite side and put in sophomore Mariah Coleman in Lebo’s place.
But Lebo wasn’t the only outside hitter playing poorly against UIC.
“Our outside hitters were really, really bad,” Dunbar-Kruzan said.
The whole team’s demeanor seemed off, junior middle blocker Awele Nwaeze said.
Last season when IU went just 9-22, Nwaeze said the team often wasn’t ready to play. Several of her teammates have said last year’s team struggled with maturity.
The loss against UIC brought back those worries for Nwaeze, she said.
“I think we underestimated UIC,” she said. “We didn’t come ready to play hard. It was a problem that we had last year. And I think it’s starting to come back.”
In the second game of the day against Eastern Kentucky, IU only had 90 minutes to try and regroup from its loss.
IU won in four sets, with Leach leading the team with 14 kills. But it was the play of Lebo that pleased Dunbar-Kruzan the most.
“I challenged Taylor Lebo,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “I said, ‘We need you to play better.’”
Lebo responded with 13 kills and a .393 hitting percentage. Not only was she making points, she was doing it at a high rate, too.
“I’m very proud of her,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “She came back and responded very, very well.”
Part of the reason the outside hitters weren’t successful was the health of the players. Lebo was ill, and junior Amelia Anderson was out due to a concussion.
Dunbar-Kruzan said she expects Anderson to be ready to start practicing Monday.
“Injuries are a part of the game,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “We needed people to step up. And that didn’t happen, obviously.”
