Weekend rewind: Hoosiers fall to Huskers, but freshmen get their chance
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In the weeks leading into the spring volleyball season, Indiana coach Steve Aird made his intentions clear. Aird vowed to use the non-traditional campaign to get his newcomers of which IU has many valuable match experience, and in this weekend’s opening series against No. 5 Nebraska, the third-year coach followed through.
Predictably, the Hoosiers did not win a single set against the Huskers at Wilkinson Hall across Friday and Saturday nights, but they did get to see what their heralded class of freshmen is all about. In Friday’s opener, IU started four freshmen outside hitters Tommi Stockham and Morgan Geddes, and middle blockers Savannah Kjolhede and Leyla Blackwell and saw those first-year athletes begin to make an impact. It was only the initial phase at the beginning of the developmental process, but all things considered, it was an encouraging first step.
Aird prepared to lean on freshmen during spring season
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Friday evening will mark the start of Steve Aird’s third season as Indiana volleyball coach, but it’s really only the beginning of an on-court rebuilding effort that Aird hopes will make IU a consistent competitor in the sport’s top conference. That’s because his staff signed the No. 15 recruiting class in the country last spring, the highest-ranked haul in program history.
And now, with an abbreviated spring season set to begin on Friday night, it’ll be those highly-regarded newcomers who’ll be tasked with pulling Indiana out of the depths of the Big Ten in the years to come.