Iowa volleyball program making clear progress

IOWA CITY - In one season, Bond Shymansky has elevated both the profile and communication level of the Iowa women's volleyball program.

Under Shymansky, an Iowa City native and first-year Hawkeye coach, the Hawkeyes have become a tenacious squad in close matches, winning eight of nine that go five sets. Wednesday, the Hawkeyes (14-16, 6-13 Big Ten) trailed Maryland 2-to-1 after three sets and was down 8-5 and 10-7 in the fifth set. But Iowa doggedly fought back and pulled out a 17-15 win in the tiebreaker.

'What used to be the fear of losing has turned into the desire for winning,” said Shymansky, who has a 304-125 overall record. He guided Marquette to a Big East title in 2013 and Georgia Tech to three ACC championships.

'It's night-and-day different,” Iowa senior Alessandra Dietz said. 'Just coming into this last week, the attitude and energy of our team is totally different. In the past it's been ... it's over.”

The Hawkeyes reached their sixth win in Big Ten play for the first time since 2008. They won four straight league matches in the midseason, including a 3-1 win against No. 12 Purdue. The Hawkeyes finish their season against Michigan State at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

There's a difference in attitude and confidence among Iowa's players. Part of it is relative success. Iowa was 7-73 in Big Ten play over its last five seasons. The other part is the mental toughness. The players are open and direct with their communication and hold each other accountable.

'This year, the progress we made it didn't come just from saying we got a new coach,” Dietz said. 'It's taken a lot of hard work. What we said at the beginning of the season is that being good or changing this program, it's going to be inconvenient. I think a lot of those things, we struggled with them on and off throughout season. But every time that's happened, we've addressed it and moved forward from it. There's nothing that we pushed under the rug.”

'It all comes back to our practices and how we communicate with each other,” said Lauren Brobst, who tied a career high with 23 kills against Maryland. 'That's been a huge part of this season. In the past we haven't really been as much of a team as we are now, and we owe that to Bond.”

Upward mobility in the Big Ten is difficult with six teams ranked among the nation's top 20 programs. Shymansky's goal is both modest and aggressive. He wants his team to reach .500 mark in league play, something not done since 1994 without forfeits. With the Purdue win and a five-set loss to No. 15 Illinois that he called a turning point, it's possible.

'We want to reach high and set high limits, not put a ceiling over our program,” he said. 'We've been in the basement so long we've only been staring at the floor, and our group is starting to look up with confidence, look up at each other.”

With one match remaining, the players see this season as a springboard toward future success.

'The season feels so much different to me than the previous seasons,” said junior Julianne Blomberg. 'It just feels like we've come leaps and bounds.”

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