CORALVILLE — Iowa Hawkeye volleyball opened its home schedule with a four-set victory over Southern Illinois on Thursday night at Xtream Arena, powered by a career performance from Rosa Vesty.
The Hawkeyes won 25-23, 22-25, 25-15, 25-23 to improve to 5-2 on the season.
Vesty led Iowa with a career-high 16 kills on 30 swings while hitting .500 with just one attack error. She also led the Hawkeyes at the net with six blocks.
Carmel Vares added 15 kills, while Liv Mogridge and Hannah Whittingstall each finished with six. Setter Jenna Meitzler recorded her third double-double of the season with 38 assists and 11 digs and also chipped in three kills.
Libero Henlee Moszkowicz led the defense with a season-high 18 digs and added six assists. Marichka Hoshylyk finished with 12 digs and Jaimie Marquardt added 10.
Iowa entered the match coming off a sweep of Iowa State in Ames that snapped a 32-year drought against the Cyclones.
READ MORE: Iowa Hawkeye volleyball sweeps Cyclones in Ames, snaps 32-year drought
The Hawkeyes finished Thursday with advantages in kills, 53-49; assists, 51-46; digs, 65-54; and blocks, 10-8. Iowa hit .248 for the match while holding Southern Illinois to .151.
The serve-and-pass game was uneven for both teams. Southern Illinois recorded 10 service aces but also committed 10 service errors. Iowa finished with six aces and eight service errors.
Iowa had to battle from behind in the opening set. Southern Illinois jumped in front 7-3 and later led 17-12 before the Hawkeyes worked their way back. Back-to-back kills by Ksenija Tomic and Vares helped spark the rally before Mogridge pushed Iowa ahead 21-20. Tomic eventually gave the Hawkeyes set point at 24-23, and a Southern Illinois error finished the 25-23 win.
The Salukis answered in the second set. Vesty put Iowa ahead 12-11, but Southern Illinois used a pair of 4-0 runs to seize control. Iowa pulled within 22-21 late, but the Salukis closed out a 25-22 win with a service ace.
The Hawkeyes dominated the third set from the start. Iowa opened with a Vares kill and built an early 5-0 run before stretching the advantage to 8-3 on a Moszkowicz ace. A Mogridge-Vesty block later made it 16-8, and Iowa rolled to the 25-15 victory.
Southern Illinois threatened to force a fifth set after building a 13-7 lead in the fourth. Iowa responded with six straight points, highlighted by back-to-back Vares kills and another Mogridge-Vesty block that tied the set at 13-13.
Vesty later tied the frame at 15 with a kill, and Iowa regained the lead at 17-16. Hoshylyk’s service ace helped push the Hawkeyes in front 20-18 before Whittingstall and Vares combined for a block.
Vares took over late, hammering her 14th kill for a 23-20 advantage and then adding a block to bring Iowa to match point. She delivered her 15th kill to finish the 25-23 set and the match.
Iowa head coach Jim Barnes said the Hawkeyes showed enough composure to finish the job but still have work to do.
“Last year, we started turning the corner. This year, it’s going to go further. What we are trying to teach them now is that you have to show up and execute in every game. We need to improve our consistency, and if we can do that, we will be able to beat some really good teams. We gave up runs tonight, which we didn’t on Tuesday. We did not have that focus tonight. Our team pulled it together enough down the stretch.”
The victory improved Iowa to 8-1 all-time against Southern Illinois and 5-0 this season when winning the opening set.
The Hawkeyes returned to action Friday night against Incarnate Word and rallied for another victory at Xtream Arena.