Hawkeye volleyball to compete in Cy-Hawk Series at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
The Cy-Hawk Series continues with matches against Lipscomb, Coastal Carolina, and Iowa State this weekend.
Iowa OH Claire Sheehan attacks the ball during the match between Iowa and Iowa State inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday, September 8, 2017. The Hawkeyes fell to the Cyclones 3-1. (Shivansh Ahuja/The Daily Iowan)
September 20, 2019
The Iowa volleyball team returns to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to take on Lipscomb, Coastal Carolina, and Iowa State tomorrow as part of the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series Tournament.
Last weekend the Hawkeyes controlled Wyoming and University of California- Davis, winning both matches, 3-2, before falling to South Dakota, 3-2. Two athletes from the team were named to the all-tournament team, juniors Brie Orr and Griere Hughes.
The first match of the weekend comes at 11 a.m. today against Lipscomb and will be only the second time that the teams have come into contact after a five-set win by Lipscomb last year. Lanie Wagner leads the team offensively with 2.87 kills per set, while Maddie Phillips runs the defensive side with 24 blocks and 72 kills this far into the season.
Next, the Hawkeyes will take on undefeated Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. today. Last facing the team in 2017, the Hawkeyes are 6-0 against the Chanticleers. With 364 assists and 11.03 assists per set, setter Brigitta Bozdeva leads the Chanticleer offense.
The team is looking for another win over Iowa State after last year’s 3-1 defeat of the Cyclones for the 2018 Cy-Hawk Series. The team is down 23-27 in the series since the beginning of the competition this year between the in-state rivals. The Cyclones are 6-3 so far into the 2019 season with a current four-match winning streak. Iowa will have competition with Iowa State’s Eleanor Holthaus, who marked a total of 104 kills through its nine games of the season.
One of three captains, junior Brie Orr, leads the Hawkeyes with 312 assists for the season.
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“I’m for sure really excited about getting in and playing Iowa State this weekend,” Orr said in a release. “That’s going to be a huge game for us. After winning last year in Ames, we really want to beat them here in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. We’re really excited about that and just starting to get going and really figuring out what our team is about.”
Senior captain Meghan Buzzerio leads the Hawkeyes in kills with a total of 119, followed by sister Courtney Buzzerio with 69 kills.
“We can communicate differently on the court because we are sisters and we have the extra level of communication,” Courtney Buzzerio said.
The Hawkeyes team currently ranks No. 4 in the Big Ten with a team attack percentage of .279.
“We’re a very direct team when we’re playing,” head coach Vicki Brown said in a release. “We’re learning how to win within that and how the benefit of being short and direct really helps us make adjustments sooner. It gives a lot of leadership powers to our captains that are on the court.”
