IU volleyball will travel Friday to play No. 3 Penn State and then Sunday to face off against No. 9 Ohio State.
The Hoosiers have spent their practices during the past week focused on playing sets as their strategy against the Nittany Lions for Friday’s game.
“I think it puts us in real-life situations,” senior outside hitter Amelia Anderson said. “Drills are great to get down details and technique but it’s different once you’re on the court playing an actual game with a score. So I think it’s really helping us.”
Penn State is coming off an upset loss last weekend against Northwestern, giving IU confidence going into the upcoming match, IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said.
The mentality going into these upcoming matches is something Dunbar-Kruzan has been working on this past week after last weekend at Purdue.
“It gets proven all the time that anybody can beat anybody on any given night in this conference,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “That’s the belief you have to have, otherwise why be in it? It’s good for them to see it. I’ve watched the Northwestern short match a ton of times because you do need to watch how much they go for it. They’re no different than we are athletic wise.”
The Hoosiers recognize one of the biggest challenges to the upcoming weekend will be competing in the Nittany Lions’ atmosphere.
Anderson and junior outside hitter Megan Tallman said they want to block out the noise of the fans behind them.
“Due to Penn State’s recent losses that will get us in a good mindset,” Tallman said. “Knowing that a team like Northwestern beat them is huge, and I think it lets us know that the opportunity is there for us. Just talking to each other a lot on the court and getting in the zone is what you have to do to block that outside noise.”
IU doesn’t have a starting lineup for the weekend yet as Dunbar-Kruzan said she wants the players to continue to motivate themselves to get better and earn playing time.
Although the Hoosiers feel pressure for wins this weekend, they said they don’t feel it exceeds any pressure they normally have when it comes to any other match they play.
“I don’t think there’s any team in the Big Ten that anyone can take lightly anymore,” Tallman said. “It’s something incredible, which it always is, but it’s so many teams fighting for top spots. So there’s no weekend you can take lightly whatsoever.”
