Michigan
13-3, 3-2
Iowa
10-8, 0-5
Michigan Posts Come-from-Behind Road Victory over Iowa
10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
» Michigan fought off four match points in the third set, winning 28-26.
» Claire Kieffer-Wright tallied a career-high 13 kills and match a career best with six blocks.
» Abby Cole had seven kills in the third set and finished with 17 kills to go with nine blocks.
Site: Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)
Score: #24 Michigan 3, Iowa 2 (23-25, 13-25, 28-26, 25-21, 15-13)
Records: U-M (13-3, 3-2 Big Ten), Iowa (10-8, 0-5 Big Ten)
Attendance: 929
Next U-M Event: Saturday, Oct. 10 -- at Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.), 7:30 p.m. CDT
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Facing four match points in the third set, the No. 24-ranked University of Michigan volleyball team kept fighting on the road at Iowa and came back to win in five sets Wednesday night (Oct. 7) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Led by Abby Cole's 17 kills and nine blocks and Claire Kieffer-Wright's career-high 13 kills and six blocks, the Wolverines improved to 3-0 in five-set matches on the season.
Iowa had a 16-12 lead in the third set before Michigan scored five consecutive points to take a 17-16 lead. The Hawkeyes gathered themselves after a timeout to end the run, but Michigan continue to play well.
Iowa led 24-22 with two straight match points, but Cole pounded two consecutive kills to even the third set at 24-24. Iowa would have two more chances to close out the match, but Ally Davis tied it at 25-25 with a kill and a block by Cole and Carly Warner tied it at 26-26. Michigan then scored two straight on Iowa errors to win the third set 28-26.
Cole had a huge third set with seven kills, paving the way for Michigan to force a fourth set.
Michigan carried its third-set momentum into the fourth set. An early 5-1 run gave the Wolverines a 7-3 advantage. From there Iowa battled back and the set went back-and-forth until the Hawkeyes took a 14-12 lead. Iowa had a 19-17 lead when Michigan stormed back with three straight points to force a timeout. Coming out of the timeout U-M got kills from Adeja Lambert and Kieffer-Wright to make it a 5-0 run and force a second Hawkeye timeout. Iowa fought off one set point at 24-20 but a wide attack gave the Wolverines the fourth set, 25-21. Lambert had two key kills late in the fourth set after having just one kill in the first three sets.
The fifth set had both teams exchanging points until Cole got a kill and a block to help U-M take a 14-11 lead. Iowa fought off two straight match points before a kill by none other than Cole sealed the 15-13 victory.
U-M got a kill down the line to fight off one set point in the first set, but a clean attack by Iowa's Mikaela Gunderson provided the clinching point at 25-23. Kieffer-Wright and Davis each had four kills for Michigan, but Iowa had a .400 hitting percentage.
The second set was all Hawkeyes. The score was tied at 7-7 when Iowa went on a 6-1 run. Later in the set a 6-0 run closed out a lopsided set, 25-13 to give Iowa a 2-0 lead in the match. Iowa continued to hit well over .300, while U-M was at a .000 hitting percentage in the second set.
Michigan won despite hitting only .179 for the match. Warner finished with 39 assists and Davis added 10 kills in the winning effort.
Michigan will continue its week on the road Saturday (Oct. 10) when they travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to face No. 4 Nebraska at 7:30 p.m. CDT in the Devaney Center.
