Wisconsin’s relentless hitting proved too much for the Iowa volleyball team to overcome, falling in a 3-0 sweep to the Badgers on Sunday afternoon. The Hawkeyes drop to 10-4 overall and 1-1 in Big Ten play.
Sixth-year Chard’e Vanzandt led Iowa’s offense with an eight-kill effort, followed by first-year Carmel Vares, who tallied seven kills of her own. Fourth-years Claire Ammeraal and Milana Moisio shined with 19 assists and 11 digs, respectively.
“We talked about having six arms because of Claire being able to attack,” head coach Jim Barnes said. “That’s the only chance we have against these top teams, and we didn’t have nearly enough offense going to stay with them.”
Set One
The Badgers came out strong to cement their top-10 status. While Iowa found some early success with two kills from Vanzandt, Wisconsin established an aggressive tempo early on to jump to a staggering 13-3 lead, forcing five Hawkeye attack errors in the process.
After two timeouts, the Hawkeyes regained their footing enough to cut the lead to 17-10, forcing three attack errors and a timeout from the Badgers. The addition of first-years Carmel Vares and Gia McGrew also created an extra four kills for Iowa, while Ammeraal tallied two of her own.
Although the Hawkeyes cut the gap to as low as seven points, the Badgers’ early momentum gave them a 25-16 win in the first set.
Set Two
While Wisconsin ramped up the pressure to start the second set, Iowa was prepared for it this time, tying twice before the 10-point marker. After a 6-0 scoring run from the Badgers to take a 17-11 lead, however, the Hawkeyes called their first timeout.
Wisconsin pulled further away, upping the ante to a 9-0 scoring run and quickly forcing Iowa’s second timeout of the set. Trailing, 20-11, the Hawkeyes managed to put two more kills on the board, courtesy of McGrew and Vanzandt, before the Badgers closed out the second set, 25-14.
“We want tougher servers,” Barnes said. “You may make a few more service errors, but you have to get tougher serves to get the setter off the net, and now you can put four hands in front of those hitters. We just needed to serve a little tougher and we needed to put more balls away.”
Set Three
Wisconsin started the contest’s third set on a run to grab a 6-1 lead, forcing Iowa to regroup with their first timeout. However, the Badgers didn’t let go of their momentum, pulling away to a 12-3 lead and limiting the Hawkeyes’ offense.
Upon a second timeout, Iowa managed to cut Wisconsin’s lead to six points, but still struggled against the Badgers’ firepower. It was a kill from Vares that nudged Iowa across the 10-point threshold and gave the Hawkeyes the spark they needed to start a run of their own, scoring points in quick succession.
Despite Iowa’s best efforts, however, Wisconsin’s relentless hitting enabled the Badgers to complete the sweep, 25-16.
Up next
Iowa, now 10-4 overall and 1-1 in conference, hits the road for their next four games, starting with back-to-back west coast matchups against Oregon on Oct. 3 and Washington on Oct. 4.
The Hawkeyes will take on the Ducks at 8:00 p.m. CT, with coverage provided by Big Ten Plus and, before facing the Huskies the next day at 6:30 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network.
“Everybody has things they’re working on, so we need to play the game very focused and together, like we did against Maryland,” Barnes said. “If we do that, we will have a great shot for winning those games.”