University of Minnesota Athletics
No. 24 Minnesota Volleyball Sweeps Indiana in Three Games
11/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The No. 24 ranked Minnesota volleyball team (19-9, 12-4) defeated Indiana by scores of 30-22, 30-25, 30-17 on Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Sports Pavilion. With the victory Minnesota broke a school record for most consecutive home victories (during the NCAA era) with its 13th in a row.
Minnesota stormed out of the gates to a 20-10 lead in game one. Indiana cut the lead to 24-16, but would get no closer as the Golden Gophers scored five of the next eight points to move it to game point at 29-19. The Hoosiers fought off three game points, before the Golden Gophers took game one 30-22 to go up 1-0 in the match. Cas sie Busse (Prior Lake, Minn.) led the attack with six kills in the game. Minnesota outhit Indiana .261 to .082 in game one.
Indiana moved out to a 15-12 lead in game two after leading throughout the early stages of the game. Minnesota answered with six of the next seven points to take an 18-16 lead over the Hoosiers. Indiana came right back to tie the score at 18. The two teams exchanged points all the way up to a tie at 22. Lin dsey Taatjes (Prinsburg, Minn.) and Jes sica Byrnes (Minnetonka, Minn.) combined on a block to give the Golden Gophers a 23-22 lead. Byrnes (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Eri n Martin (Ames, Iowa) registered back-to-back kills to push the lead to 25-22. The Hoosiers then committed an attack error to give Minnesota its fourth straight point to make it 26-22. Minnesota scored three of the next five points to get it to game point at 29-24. After Indiana trimmed it to 29-25. Mer edith Nelson (St. Croix, Wis.) put down a kill to give the Golden Gophers the game 30-25 as they went up 2-0 in the match. Busse and Martin recorded six and five kills respectively, while Pau la Gentil (Forteleaza Ceara', Brazil) had 11 digs in the game.
Minnesota jumped out to a 19-14 lead in game three, and the Golden Gophers expanded on the margin with five straight points to go up 23- 14. The two teams exchanged points to make 24-15. Senior Eri n Lorenzen (Pipestone, Minn.) followed that by recording back-to-back solo blocks to make it 26-15. The Golden Gophers scored again to go up 27-15, which completed an 8-1 run. After Indiana scored two straight points to make it 27-17, freshman Ath ena Mallakis (Simi Valley, Calif.) recorded a kill to put Minnesota up 28-17. Mallakis and Lorenzen then combined on a block to make it 29-17. Tri sha Bratford (Reseda, Calif.) closed out the game with a kill to give the Golden Gophers the 30-17 game-three victory. Minnesota outhit the Hoosiers .529 to .100 in game three, and were paced by six kills from Martin.
Busse led the way for Minnesota with a double-double tallying 14 kills and 10 digs. Martin also tallied 14 kills for the Golden Gophers. Byrnes displayed a mirror image of her match on Friday, tying a career-high in hitting percentage at .524 (12-1-21) with 12 kills. Gentil had a match-high 19 digs, while Taatjes had 48 assists, nine digs, three kills and three blocks on the night.
Minnesota outhit Indiana .346 to .117 on the night, and had 59 kills to the Hoosiers 41. The Golden Gophers also outblocked Indiana 13.0 to 4.0 on the match. Indiana was led by Christina Archibald and Melissa Brewer who each had 10 kills. Setter Victoria Zimmerman had 31 assists, 12 digs and six kills for the Hoosiers.
Minnesota will finish up its road slate in the Big Ten next weekend. The Golden Gophers head take on Michigan State on Friday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. They wrap up the road trip at Ann Arbor against Michigan on Saturday,
