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The Iowa volleyball team couldn’t muster enough energy to build on its winning streak.
After ending a season-high five-game losing skid in five sets against Wisconsin on Nov. 11, Iowa (12-16, 4-12) was swept 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 28-26) by No. 13 Minnesota (20-7, 11-4) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Nov. 13.
After only getting four days to prepare for their match against the Badgers as opposed to a full week, Iowa head coach Sharon Dingman said fatigue wasn’t an excuse for her team’s slow start against Minnesota.
“[Wisconsin] was an emotion win, so you certainty think that could have something to do with that,” Dingman said. “But at this level, I guess we expected that’s not going to happen. If we have the expectation of success, we’re going to have to be able to come off of a win and put together another good match to follow it.”
It was the second straight game, the Hawkeyes played without starters Mara Hilgenberg and Aimee Huffman, both out with unrelated illness.
“[Nov. 11] was definitely way more exciting just because it was that first career start for me,” sophomore setter Paige Stevens said after the match. “[Nov. 13], I was a little bit more relaxed, maybe almost too relaxed. I feel like a lot of us were.”
Sophomore middle blocker Mallory Husz had 10 kills, while Stevens dished 23 assists and had a career-high 11 digs for the Hawkeyes in the loss.
The Golden Gophers were led by freshman outside hitter Tabitha Love, who had 15 kills. Senior setter Taylor Carico added 39 assists, and senior libero Christine Tan had 16 digs.
Minnesota, ranked third in the Big Ten in hitting percentage, hit well-above their season average of .256 with an attacking percentage of .336 while holding the Hawkeyes to a .151 attacking percentage.
In the first set, Minnesota jumped out to an early 10-3 lead. Holding the Hawkeyes to an attacking percentage of .077, the Golden Gophers took the first set easily, 25-13, and a 1-0 match advantage.
In the second set, Minnesota got off to a fast start, taking a 17-8 lead before eventually winning the set, 25-13, and taking a 2-0 lead in the match. Iowa hit .053 in the set as opposed to the Golden Gopher’s .389.
In the third set, Iowa opened with an early 5-0 lead.
After the Hawkeyes took a 13-8 edge, the Golden Gophers called a time-out. A 10-5 run by Minnesota saw the Gophers tie up the set, 18-18.
The two teams then traded points before the Hawkeyes found themselves in a 24-22 hole.
Iowa battled back to tied the game up, 25-25, but Minnesota forced two Hawkeyes errors and used a kill to take the final set and the match.
“In the third set, we kind of just decided it was going to be all effort,” senior outside hitter Megan Schipper said. “We were going to leave everything we had on the court because we had these next two days off, so we played a lot harder. But it still sucks to lose — especially by two points.”
Despite the loss, Hawkeye players said they still took a few positives out of the match.
“We obviously figured out how to get over that bump of those first two sets,” Stevens said. “So that was good. We ended on a better note than we started.”
