2018 FloVolleyball Big Ten Calendar

Despite Loss Of Hoye, Shymansky Still Believes In Hawkeyes

Despite Loss Of Hoye, Shymansky Still Believes In Hawkeyes

Since defeating Wisconsin on Oct. 6, the Hawkeyes have only won twice, both sweeps of Rutgers, and their current record stands at 13-13.

Nov 9, 2018 by Megan Kaplon
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By this point in the NCAA women’s volleyball season, some teams have a clear vision of what their postseason fate looks like. 

For example, if you’re Minnesota, boasting a 20-2 record and ranked No. 3 in the AVCA Poll and No. 4 in the latest RPI, you’re going to make the tournament, and barring a massive upset between now and Thanksgiving weekend, you’ll probably even snag a top-four seed. 

On the other hand, if you’re 12-15 Ohio State and more than a few of your starters are out for the season with injuries, you haven’t won a match in almost three weeks, and three of your remaining five opponents are ranked in the top 10, the likelihood of making the NCAA tournament is practically zero, even if you did upset Penn State on the opening weekend of conference play. 

And then there’s a team like Iowa. 

Early in the 2018 season, the Hawkeyes surprised Iowa State at home, beating their in-state rivals in Ames for the first time since 1997. Then, Iowa opened the Big Ten season with a sweep of Michigan State and two weeks later knocked off then-No. 6 Wisconsin in five, marking the program’s first victory over a team ranked in the top 10.

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Since that defeat of Wisconsin on Oct. 6, however, the Hawkeyes have only won twice, both sweeps of Rutgers, and their current record stands at 13 wins and 13 losses. Junior outside hitter Cali Hoye, who played a starring role in each of Iowa’s big wins this season, including tallying 30 kills in the upset of the Badgers, missed recent matches versus Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Maryland due to injury, and during the broadcast of the match versus Nebraska on Wednesday, it was announced that she is officially out for the remainder of the season. 

“I don’t know that a lot of teams are really good without their point leader in our conference,” fifth-year Iowa head coach Bond Shymansky said. “I don’t know what Nebraska does without Foecke or I don’t know what Minnesota does without Hart. Who knows how that impacts teams, but sometimes they are fortunate and they don’t have to find out.”

But even with Hoye out and only five matches left in the season, Shymansky still believes his team can make the tournament. To do so, they’ll likely need all five of those remaining contests to be Ws. 

The Hawkeyes, who have not been to the NCAA tournament since 1994 and have only made the national postseason twice in program history, know how it feels to be snubbed on selection Sunday. Last year, after finishing the regular season with an 18-15 record and possessing a marquee win over Michigan, ranked No. 22 at the time, and a tough overall schedule, Iowa was one of the first four teams left out of the field of 64.

Shymansky, who in 2016 led the team to its first winning season since 2000, points out the incredible strides Hawkeye volleyball has made, even if those accomplishments haven’t yet included a third NCAA tournament appearance.

“From a program standpoint, I just think we have so much positive momentum that is happening, whether it’s attendance or team capability and getting big wins and first moments inside of our program this year,” Shymansky said. “There is just a lot of good positive momentum that way. 

“Right now, we’re kind of plateauing as a really good team, and the reminder is that when you’re really good in the Big Ten, you lose a lot, so you have to be great in the Big Ten to win.”

With Hoye out of the lineup, Shymansky moved 6-2 redshirt junior outside hitter Meghan Buzzerio into the O2 spot. Buzzerio played six rotations as a redshirt freshman in 2016, but had been playing outside Taylor Louis’ back row so far this season. With Buzzerio’s presence needed in the front row, Shymansky and his staff have been looking for the right defensive specialist to play Louis’ three back-row rotations. 

Hoye’s absence from the lineup has also left an emotional hole to fill.

“Cali wasn’t just our point leader, she was kind of our moxy leader,” Shymansky said. “She was the kid that had a lot of spit and vinegar to her, and I think our girls rallied around that in a lot of great ways, and it gave us a little edge. You need to have some confidence and some edge, especially when our program had been historically in the bottom of the conference where the teams in the Big Ten believe that they are better than you and believe they are supposed to win.”

One player who has stepped into a leadership role this season and even more so as Hoye struggled through her injury is senior libero and captain Molly Kelly, who Shymansky describes as the “major of Iowa City.” 

“I’m from here, and I went to college here, I grew up here, and I know a lot of people,” Shymansky said. “But I don’t know nearly as many people as Molly Kelly, and not nearly as many people know me as know Molly Kelly.”

Kelly, Shymansky said, is affable, humble, open, and accepting. She also happens to be second in the Big Ten in digs per set (5.16, just 0.01 digs/set behind Michigan’s Jenna Lerg), and with 22 digs in the three-set loss to Nebraska on Wednesday night, Kelly surpassed 1,000 saves in her career.

Then you’ve got sophomore setter Brie Orr, who Shymansky says “is really starting to grow up a lot and lead ... She’s really playing like an experienced veteran from an attitude and effort standpoint and the way she’s communicating.”

The team’s points leader Taylor Louis, a transfer who came to Iowa City from Marquette prior to 2017, is in her second season as one of the team’s go-to hitters, but in her senior season, she is beginning to figure out how to rally the team around her impressive abilities, instead of simply performing.

Kelly, Orr, and Louis and their supporting cast members will begin their final push toward the NCAA tournament on Saturday with a road match at Michigan State. In the league opener, Iowa scored a sweep over the Spartans, but by all accounts, Michigan State has improved considerably since then. Just last week, MSU pushed conference leader Minnesota to five sets in Minneapolis and then beat Ohio State in four on Wednesday. 

“You can’t assume that it’s going to go like it went before, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Shymansky said of his team’s next match. “Michigan State is a super young team and they’ve matured very well through the course of the season.

“They also continue to tweak their lineup. When we played them, they played a little bit of a 6-2 and then they went to a 5-1, and now they’re back to a 6-2. [Maddie] Haggerty had a small role, now she has a big role. There are just a lot of things that are evolving inside their program as they try to find a way to win.” 

The Spartans have developed into a very good blocking team, ranking third in the Big Ten with 2.72 blocks per set. Part of Iowa’s strategy, Shymansky said, will be to “stay in longer rallies and force their big giraffes to play small ball.”  

After Saturday, Iowa will turn its attention to the Hoosier state, where it will travel to face Indiana and Purdue. Then on Thanksgiving weekend, the Hawkeyes play host to Maryland and Ohio State. Of all five matches, the needed upset over No. 12 Purdue seems like the most challenging feat, but of course, Maryland already handed Iowa a sweep earlier this season and remember, Ohio State is beat up, but they still took down Penn State. Oh, and the Hoosiers? They just upset No. 14 Michigan last week.  

“I always give [the team] the analogy it’s like climbing Everest. A lot of people get to the third base camp on Everest and they are only 1,000 feet from the summit and they cannot summit, and sometimes they turn around and come back down, and it’s just really tough at the top,” Shymansky said. “The air is thin and the steps are treacherous.”

Welcome to the Big Ten, the Mount Everest of women’s volleyball. 

Tune in Saturday, Nov. 10, at 7 PM ET, right here on FloVolleyball, to see Iowa take on Michigan State, or check out the Big Ten schedule page to see all the matches streaming live this weekend.