Hawkeyes were up-ended by Illinois in a tiebreaker set last year.
By Kyle Mann
The Hawkeye volleyball team is back on the road this weekend, set for a pair of matches in Illinois.
Iowa’s first game is against No. 16 Illinois at 7 p.m. today, followed by a match with Northwestern at 1 p.m. on Oct. 18.
The Hawkeyes, who once stood at 10-3, now sit at 10-9 and on a six-game skid since the beginning of conference play. They showed flashes of potential early in the season but still have yet to translate it into wins.
They are eager to get on the right track this weekend.
“Especially in the Big Ten, once you start losing, it’s easy to get into a snowball,” setter Loxley Keala said. “We’ve competed with everybody, we just need to capitalize on what we’re doing.”
The Illini enter the weekend standing 11-6, 2-4 in the Big Ten. Despite Iowa’s 0-6 record, the teams would appear to be similar in quality, and Iowa has some extra motivation to avenge a sour ending to last year’s meeting.
Iowa won the first set in the 2014 meeting against the then-No.15 Illini, and after dropping the next two sets, won the fourth to force a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker set was tied late, but Illinois took control to steal a heartbreaker from the Hawks at home.
Now, the Hawks want revenge.
“They distinctly remember the five-set loss in here last year,” head coach Bond Shymansky said. “That was definitely a coulda-woulda-shoulda kind of opportunity, so they’re really hungry to go after them.”
The good news for the Hawkeyes is that the last time they felt a more personal motivation to beat somebody, they did.
“I know that look in their eyes, I saw it when we lined up against Iowa State, that whole week leading up to that moment I could see what our team was motivated for,” Shymansky said. “It’s the same way as we prepare for Illinois.”
Iowa went on to win that match against Iowa State, 3-1, on Sept. 11.
While the players on the team use last year’s loss as a motivation to increase their level of engagement and intensity, Shymansky has them preparing for an Illini offense that they believe they have a good understanding of.
“They have two really big, dominant outside hitters,” Jess Janota said. “We’re going to want to control them the best we can and also be as offensive as we can possibly be ourselves.”
After Illinois, the Hawkeyes will move on the face a team that they did upset last season in Northwestern.
The Wildcats are also 11-6 overall, 3-3 in the Big Ten, and 3-1 at home. The Wildcats are also a team in Iowa’s range quality-wise, but are coming off of an impressive victory over No. 5 Penn State on Oct. 10.
It should be noted that during Iowa’s Illinois/Northwestern week last season, Shymansky began to see his team compete in the Big Ten. He and his Hawkeyes would be pleased with a similar turn of events this weekend.
Follow @KyleFMann for Iowa volleyball news, updates, and analysis.
