IU volleyball is back on the road Friday to continue their training in anticipation for Sunday’s match against Wisconsin (14-6).
“I think this game is going to be similar to Minnesota,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said. “I think Wisconsin is very good and balanced. The game is also sold out, so there’s going to be a lot of people. I think for us — we did a better job on our serving, but we’re just trying to keep tweaking things and keep the mentality the way it needs to be.”
The Hoosiers (13-10) have been focused on taking more risks and with those risks have come errors. During previous matches this season, a lot of the points the opposing teams have been scoring have come from serving and hitting errors by the Hoosiers.
Dunbar-Kruzan said she thinks these errors have played a large factor in recent losses.
“Taking those risks might come with errors but it also comes with rewards,” senior defensive specialist Courtney Harnish said. “In the long run we are getting better at taking risks and getting rewards out of it. So we’ll take a little bit of error to get the reward we want.”
The Hoosiers will continue to work on fixing these errors with the day-to-day work they put into their practices, Dunbar-Kruzan said. Those things include smart swings, focused footwork, and consistent swinging processes, which will help them decrease the errors they’ve been making.
One thing IU is typically known for is having a quick offense, but this season, IU has also been able to keep up with its opponents with aggressive serving and block defense.
IU plans to continue with its offensive formula Sunday against Wisconsin, but they haven’t forgotten about the improvements that need to be made after returning home early Thursday morning with a loss against Minnesota.
“I thought there were some positive things we did,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “Thought our serving was great but we didn’t take care of the opportunities after serving the ball. They put us in some bad situations, and we didn’t handle those situations as well as they might’ve handled it.”
During practices this week the Hoosiers focused on improving serving, passing and scrambling to find kills.
Dunbar-Kruzan said the Hoosiers targeted their work on eliminating their hesitation on defensive plays while increasing their aggressiveness.
The Hoosier’s ability to get the Badgers out of system while they bring their serving and passing on the road is going to be a key to challenging the Badgers on their home court.
“Wisconsin is a great team,” Harnish said. “I’d love a great challenge. I wouldn’t want to walk in there and have it be easy.”
