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Monon Spike up for grabs tonight

Nov. 10, 2010

The Hoosiers look to make a move this weekend and begin to seperate themselves from a very crowded Big Ten Standings where five teams are within one game of ascending to fourth place or plummeting down to eighth.

Coach Dunbar

Indiana volleyball coach Sherry Dunbar

It's a short week of preparation for Indiana (19-7, 7-7 Big Ten) as the Hoosiers head to West Lafayette for a 7 p.m. Wednesday night (Nov. 10) battle with the Boilermakers of Purdue (16-9, 7-7). Not only is the Monon Spike on the line, but the contest is being broadcast live to a national audience on the Big Ten Network. Dan Kelly and Megan Bowers will be on the call. In addition, IUHoosiers.com will be providing a live audio broadcast.

Indiana will then return home to University Gym Saturday and face the Northwestern Wildcats (17-8, 7-7) in 7 p.m. match. That event can be viewed at BigTenNetwork.com.

The Monon Spike

The Monon Spike is the traveling trophy awarded annually to the winner of the second IU-Purdue volleyball match. It was created in 1981 and as is tradionally done with its sister trophy, the Old Oaken Bucket for football, an `I' or `P' link is added to the chain each year to signify the victor of that season's showdown.

Complete Match Notes

2010-11 Smithville Crimson and Gold Cup

The rivalry between IU and Purdue continues with the 2010-11 Smithville Crimson & Gold Cup. The overall winner of the contest will be awarded a trophy at the end of the season.

Heading into Wednesday's volleyball match, Indiana owns a 2.0-1.5 lead in the current standings.

Each sport can earn one point toward the overall championship. A total of 20 points can be won. The winner of regular season head-to-head competition earns the point for its institution. Should the teams split or tie in regular season competition the point is split between the two institutions.

The two schools tied, 10-10 in 2009-10, meaning IU retained the Cup after winning the previous season. IU has a 3-1-2 record against Purdue in the competition over the last six years.

If the two institutions do not compete in head-to-head regular season competition, the team that places higher at the Big Ten Championship will earn the point. Should they tie in conference championship competition the point will be split. In the sport of track & field, three-way meets that are scored as dual meets do not count as head-to-head competition.

Big Ten Player of the Week (x2)

Sophomore outside hitter Jordan Haverly was named the Big Ten's Player of the week once again on Monday, marking her second such honor this season. Haverly averaged 5.0 kills, 3.0 digs and nearly a block per set in guiding the Hoosiers to a weekend sweep over Minnesota and Iowa.

Haverly is not new to conference recognition, being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week on three occasions last season.

Record Book Onslaught

With two single-season school records (hitting percentage, total blocks) already on her resume, senior middle blocker Ashley Benson now has the career record books in her sights.

She set the school's all-time record most career blocks earlier this season and is now simply piling on to the mark with 584 stuffs heading into the weekend.

Benson has also nearly guaranteed herself the No. 1 slot for hitting efficiency as her .333 career clip is 43 percentage points higher than the next closest Hoosier. She has racked up 1,365 kills as well, 23 shy of the top-five.

Libero Caitlin Cox is also climbing up the career rankings. With at least six matches and an entire 2011 season left in Bloomington, Cox already owns the single-season digs mark and needs only 70 more to crack the career top-two.

In addition, Mary Chaudoin and Taylor Wittmer's career totals of 2,556 assists and 369 blocks slot them 7th and 8th all-time, respectively, in the those career categories.

Big Ten Doing Big Things

Any doubt that the Big Ten is one of the nation's two toughest volleyball conferences is quickly erased when looking at the AVCA Coaches Poll Top-25. Eight league schools are representing this week with two in the top-10, five in the top-25 and three additional teams receiving votes, including Indiana with 30 votes. The Pac-10 leads the country with seven schools ranked in the top-25.

In the RPI, the Big Ten has three of the top-10 and six in the top-25.

The Big Ten had an overall non-conference record of 106-17 (.862) heading into the weekend.