The Iowa volleyball team dropped a pair of matches in the state of Michigan over the weekend to fall to 10-7 on the season and 0-4 in Big Ten play.

The Hawkeyes have lost four-straight matches and are tied with Indiana for last place in the Big Ten.

Iowa lost to Michigan State in straight sets on Oct. 1 (25-14, 25-22, 25-12). Freshman Alex Lovell led the Hawkeyes with eight kills, and sophomore Nikki Dailey notched 24 assists, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Spartans from rolling in Jenison Field House.

The defeat came less than 24 hours after another straight-set loss; the Hawkeyes fell to No. 17 Michigan on Sept. 30 (25-22, 25-15, 25-17).

Head coach Sharon Dingman praised the play of seniors Mallory Husz and Megan Eskew after the match but said the rest of her team struggled with hitting and passing.

When things didn’t improve against the Spartans the next day, Dingman called for the Hawkeyes to step up and stop rolling over when facing tough opponents — iterating a theme that sprung up after the team’s lopsided losses to Ohio State and Penn State last week.

"We need to decide we don’t want to get pushed around anymore," she said in a release. "[Husz] always competes hard, but we need to see it from the entire lineup, not just from the seniors."

Iowa will face Indiana at 7 p.m. Friday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

— by Seth Roberts