Iowa has started 0-6 in the Big Ten, most recently falling to Michigan State, and this is why.

By Kyle Mann
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The Iowa volleyball team dropped a match in straight sets to Michigan State on Oct. 10, falling to 10-9, 0-6 in the Big Ten.

The Hawkeyes began the season with a pair of statement wins followed by a string of impressive losses, but with six-consecutive defeats to begin Big Ten play, a few flaws are emerging that could prove fatal if not addressed soon.

Blocking bad

Beginning with Nebraska in the conference opener, the Hawkeyes clearly struggle with strong-blocking teams, and that was no different against the Spartans. Michigan State out-blocked Iowa, 7-3 in the match.

“We could tell Michigan State had a full lineup from what we had scouted, and we just didn’t adjust well,” head coach Bond Shymansky said. “They’re a big, physical team at the net.”

Iowa now sits in last place in the conference and also at the bottom of the Big Ten in blocks allowed. The Iowa offense is blocked more than any other team in the conference; 2.47 times per set.

The block is a double trouble for the Hawkeyes.

They are third-to-last as a team with only 1.88 per set, and they lack a dominant presence at the net to disrupt opponents. They are one of only two teams, the other being Maryland, without a single player who has 1 or more than 1 block per set. This would seem to correlate directly with Iowa also being third-to-last in hitting percentage allowed (.216) and fourth-to-last in kills allowed (12.57/set).

‘You can err your way out of a match’

After 11 errors in a tiebreaker-set loss to Michigan on Oct. 7, Shymansky criticized his team’s lack of polish and resulting unforced errors. With their issues with opposing blocks making points hard enough to come by, the Hawkeyes can’t afford to make as many errors as they have been.

In 21 conference sets, Iowa has committed 123 attack errors, 44 service errors, 20 receiving errors, and four blocking errors, or 9.1 errors per set. In a sport playing sets to 25, spotting your opponent more than a third of that mark isn’t exactly a part of the optimal game plan.

Iowa was right at 9.3 errors in its match with the Spartans, including 19 attack errors contributing to a lowly .157 attack percentage.

Putting it together

Headlined by Lauren Brobst (3.54 kills/set) and Jess Janota (2.93), the Hawkeye offense was going to have substantial firepower. Much to Shymansky’s pleasure, he’s gotten increased production from Mikaela Gunderson (2.15) and surprise freshman Reagan Davey (2.44).

With the pieces in place to present a significant threat from a hitting standpoint, it’s been disappointing to this point that Iowa has been largely pedestrian with a .250 hitting percentage (sixth in the Big Ten) and 13.72 kills per set (seventh in Big Ten).

The problem so far has been that while one or two of Shymansky’s weapons may be on, the others are not. He has repeated several times this season that he is glad to see his players play well, but that individual performances are meaningless as isolated incidents not translating to wins.

The Hawkeyes would like to fix all of their problems, and having all their players play well would go a long way in alleviating them.