Oct. 22, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - It took just one hour and 17 minutes for the Boilermaker volleyball team to snap its four-match losing streak, as it used an all-around team effort to defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes 3-0 Friday night. Purdue won the match 30-16, 30-29 and 30-19.
The Boilermakers scored early and often in Game 1, starting off with a 5-0 run on kills by four different players. Iowa got on the board at 5-1, but Purdue quickly raised the margin to eight at 10-2 behind a trio of kills from redshirt junior Leah Wischmeier (Brownstown, Ind.). The Hawkeyes raised their point tally to six at 14-6, but the Boilermakers didn't slow down, boosting the score to 21-7 after a pair of kills by junior Renata Dargan (New Lenox, Ill.) and a trio of blocks by Dargan, freshman Lizzie Jacques (Winfield, Ill.) and senior Kim McConaha (Centerville, Ind.). Iowa found new life after taking five of the next six points to cut the 14-point deficit to 10 at 22-12. The Boilermakers then closed the door with an 8-4 run, including a trio of kills by freshman Sammi Mader (Algonquin, Ill.), capping the effort with a kill and service ace by McConaha. Purdue hit .474 to Iowa's .093 effort in the game. Dargan accounted for four kills, four digs and three blocks in the stanza.
"We just wanted to play well," head coach Dave Shondell said. "Overall, most of players were pretty sharp tonight and that is what we were looking for - to go out and play with confidence. That confidence starts with Renata (Dargan) and she had an exceptional match, the kind of night that I think that she can have any night if she is ready to go. She got us off to a great start tonight."
Game 2 saw Purdue take a quick 3-1 lead, but this time the Hawkeyes hung tight, keeping the game within reach. Leading by just two at 10-8, Purdue used a trio of kills by Dargan to boost the margin to four at 13-9. Iowa pulled within two again at 15-13, but Purdue answered with an 11-3 run to go up 26-16. Senior Daren Poe (Martinsville, Ind.) served five straight points for the Boilermakers during the rally, including a service ace. The Hawkeyes would not go down easy, however, chalking up four of the next five points to make it 27-20. A setting error stopped the Iowa rally, then kills by Mader and McConaha gave Purdue the game at 30-20. The Boilermakers hit .386 in the game, led by Dargan's .714 effort (five kills on seven attempts).
Purdue came out of the intermission with guns blazing, racing out to a 9-1 advantage, including three Wischmeier kills and an ace by McConaha. The Boilermakers paused briefly, allowing Iowa a few points, before using a 4-1 run to go up by 10 at 14-4. Freshman Emily Williams (Mishawaka, Ind.) got in on the action, putting down a pair of kills during the stretch. The teams then traded points over the next few serves, before Iowa mounted a comeback with an 7-1 run, capitalizing on five Purdue miscues, to pull within three at 18-15. The Boilermakers boosted the margin back to five at 21-16 on a Hawkeye service error. Senior Kim Cappa (West Lafayette, Ind.) recorded a pair of kills in the midst of a 5-1 run, which put the Boilermakers up eight at 26-18. A service error gave Iowa its 19th point, but four straight Hawkeye miscues sealed the match for Purdue with a 30-19 win.
McConaha led a trio of Purdue hitters with double-digit kill tallies with 13 putdowns, followed by Dargan and Wischmeier, who posted 12 and 11 respectively. McConaha added a team-high 15 digs to complete her double-double. Dargan narrowly missed a triple-double by just a single dig, posting 12 kills, 40 assists and nine digs, while leading the team with a .478 hitting percentage and four blocks. Carolyn Geise led the Hawkeyes with 11 kills.
"After a four-match losing streak, you need a win to boost your confidence back up," McConaha said. "We came out and we really took it to them, which helps up get our confidence up. I think this helps our team remember that it is a long Big Ten season and also to know what a win feels like again."
Purdue returns to action at 8 p.m. Saturday against the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers (19-2, 8-1 Big Ten), who downed Indiana 3-0 Friday night.
"We worked on Minnesota enough in practice this week, that tomorrow we just have to make sure our team is ready to play." Shondell said. "We need to go out there with confidence and take care of things on our side of the net. I think our players already have in their minds how they can be effective with what Minnesota brings, which I think is the best defense in the country. It is going to be difficult to score on them, so the key is going to be for us to find ways to get the ball on the floor and cut down on our errors, which we did tonight. It will be a fun match, we just have to go into it, play our best and see what happens."