By James Kay
Every team in sports faces adversity in the form of a losing steak, and it appears that time is now for the Hawkeye volleyball team.
Iowa is enduring its longest skid of the season after losing its third-straight match, against Purdue on Nov. 12.
“I feel for our gals. They are frustrated because they want to keep winning, and they can smell and taste how close it is,” Iowa head coach Bond Shymansky said in a release after the loss against Purdue. “We are just going to keep going and working to get better.”
Heading into tonight’s match, The Hawkeyes are going to need to improve in many areas of their game. Here is a closer look at how they have been struggling in their past three matches and why they can turn things around against Rutgers.
Hitting percentage in last three matches: .119
The Iowa offense hasn’t been clicking as it has in previous matches. In its last three matches, it has hit .030, .108, and .221. That is well below its season average of .264.
Senior Lauren Brobst has also cooled off a little since her hot start to begin the season. During the skid, Brobst is hitting .063, which is unusual since she has been one of the Hawkeyes’ most powerful weapons on offense.
If the Hawkeyes are going to bounce back tonight, they will need Brobst to return to the days where she was getting all-tournament recognition. She is more than capable of doing just that.
On the plus side, the Hawkeyes will face a Rutgers defense that has been miserable against conference opponents. The Scarlet Knights have allowed a .346 hitting percentage against conference foes, which ranks dead last in the conference.
Collective record of the teams they have faced in the past three matches: 59-20
In the last three matches, the Hawkeyes have faced the best team in the country in Nebraska, a No. 15 Penn State team that has arguably the best frontline player in the conference, and an enormous Purdue team pushed Iowa to five sets at Carver-Hawkeye in its previous match.
What makes this number even more staggering is that Purdue accounts for 11 of the 20 losses for that record. While the Hawkeyes have been able to challenge the NCAA’s upper-echelon of volleyball, it might not be as surprising they haven’t been able to collect themselves against teams such as Nebraska and Penn State.
On the plus side, to put it very, very lightly, Rutgers has been atrocious this year. It sports a 4-25 record (2-13 in conference) and has only hit over .200 eight times this season. To put that in perspective, the Hawkeyes have hit over .200 in 22 of their matches this season.
On the even better side, Rutgers is getting pummeled in every sense of the phrase. It has given 1324 kills, which is the most out of any team in the Big Ten. Here’s the sad part — they have only accumulated 933 kills. Their opponents have a plus-391 differential against them. The Hawkeye offense has the power and weapons to add to that already ridiculous total.
