Iowa will head to the Great Lakes State to open Big Ten play
By James Kay
East Lansing, Michigan, is the location today for the Iowa volleyball team as it begins Big Ten play against Michigan State.
The Hawkeyes will then travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday to take on Michigan.
Iowa has been eager to start Big Ten competition with its revamped depth chart and newfound cohesiveness on the court. After going 2-18 in conference play last season, the team knows what it has to do to be successful.
“Big Ten openers are always huge because it can go either way,” said senior Alyssa Klostermann. “The Big Ten is very competitive, and every single team in the Big Ten is dominant. It’s really huge for us because we are taking a trip to face two really tough teams, and it would be big for us to go in and grab two upsets right away.”
The Hawkeyes (10-2) will have a tall task in front of them; both Michigan State and Michigan recently moved into the top-25 national rankings.
Michigan State has only dropped six sets in its first 12 matches. Like the Hawkeyes, the Spartans have retained their starting core, which features hard-hitting juniors Alyssa and Holly Toliver.
Garvelink is hitting a phenomenal .379 on the season while recording the third-most kills on her team (89).
Despite going against a stacked Spartans lineup, the Hawkeyes won’t back away from the challenge.
“[Michigan State is] known for being a big physical team, but I think we are starting to get that reputation, too,” said junior Jess Janota. “Yes, they might be overall bigger than us, but we just have to use the speed of our offense and just stay true to ourselves.”
Head coach Bond Shymansky echoed that.
“[The Spartans] have retained pretty much everyone from their starting lineup, so for us, it’s adding the new wrinkles that should help create a new look and a new challenge for them,” he said. “We just have to make sure we are affecting it point by point. The game at its highest level is still about serving and passing, so that’s the area we can hone in on and hopefully take the advantage.”
One thing that will be out of their hands is the intense atmosphere that every Big Ten arena brings to each conference match. The upperclassmen have been prepping the younger players for the mental aspect of Big Ten play.
“My being an upperclassmen now, I do have those two years of experience, so [the upperclassmen] have helped get them ready,” Janota said. “But I think our underclassmen are prepared. They have been in big match moments already this season, and we are all feeling really confident going into that type of atmosphere.”
The Hawkeyes’ first game will be at 6:30 p.m. today at the Breslin Student Events Center. They will then travel to Ann Arbor to take on the Wolverines at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Crisler Center.
Shymansky is confident the Hawkeyes will be ready to rise to the challenge.
“Heading up to the Michigan schools is always a big challenge,” he said. “They are two very different-style teams, and they are physical in their own right but play different brands of volleyball. We’ve had a quality weekend getting tuned up and now a quality week in practice to go compete.”