The Iowa volleyball team opened up the weekend on a high note, but dropped two of their three matches over the course of two days. 

On the results side, it was a mixed bag. Iowa took a three-set win over Lipscomb on Friday morning and lost both of its primetime games to Coastal Carolina and Iowa State. However, with the fight shown towards the end of the Iowa State match, there are plenty of positives to be taken out of the weekend.

Following the second set against Iowa State, the captains took it upon themselves to channel the focus of the team and turn things around.

“I come in and the captains were just running it, they held it down. It was more of me saying this is our rotation that we’re in and I think that shows a lot of growth in our leadership,” interim head coach Vicki Brown said.

Something clicked for the Hawkeyes during those next two sets, especially the fourth set where Iowa raced out to an 11-3 lead and had complete control over the rest of the set. 

“Really it was the first time we’ve seen that kind of fight in the team,” junior Brie Orr said. 

The Hawkeyes started playing a lot more aggressively and efficiently. Although kills were relatively the same, Iowa cut down on the errors with just six in the third and fourth sets combined, compared with Iowa State’s 14 in that span. Iowa also racked up all of its team blocks after the second set, after Iowa State dominated with five of its own in the first two sets.

The game against the Cyclones summed up Iowa’s weekend of inconsistency. After a strong performance against Lipscomb in the opening game, the Hawkeyes struggled against a strong Coastal Carolina team. Although Iowa recorded six more kills and 12 more assists than the Chanticleers, the Hawkeyes had 26 errors compared to Coastal Carolina’s mere 10.

Blocking seems to be an area of weakness for the team right now, as Iowa was outblocked 28 to 13 on the weekend as a whole. That undoes a lot of Iowa’s high number of kills, where they outscored opponents 159 to 139.

Iowa still wants to come out more aggressive in games and during the match. 

“I don’t think it’s a skill thing, I just think we need to come out at the start of the match and attack from the beginning instead of trying to catch up,” sophomore Courtney Buzzerio said.

Buzzerio was one of several players who had big weekends. The California native had a personal-best 19 kills in the Iowa State match.

Junior Brie Orr was also very involved in the Iowa State game, recording a second-best 49 assists alongside a block and 13 digs. 

Iowa must now switch its focus to Big Ten play, with a loaded schedule during the next two months.

“The Big Ten season is a long season, especially with us having eight freshmen, this is going to be the longest season that they’ve really competed in,” Brown said.