No. 20 Huskies Serve, Block Their Way Past Hawkeyes - University of Washington Athletics

Friday, October 30

Seattle, Wash.

7:00 PM

University of Washington

16-4,7-4Big Ten

Iowa

13-12,2-9Big Ten

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Iowa	26	23	25	11	1
Washington	24	25	27	25	3

Sammy Destler celebrating a point against the Hawkeyes

October 30, 2026 | Volleyball

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By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – It wasn't easy until the end, but 20th-ranked Washington put away a tough Iowa squad with some "scary good" serving and blocking. The Huskies (16-4, 7-4 Big Ten) had a season-high in both aces and blocks, with 15 of each, to top the Hawkeyes (13-12, 2-9 Big Ten) 24-26, 25-23, 27-25, 25-11 in "Black Out" match at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The first three sets were as close as could be, all decided by just two points and two going past the 25-point mark. But after saving set points in the third and winning it on back-to-back blocks, the Huskies finally found room to run and dominated the fourth set to close the victory with emphasis.

The Hawkeyes were coming off a five-set upset over a ranked UCLA squad in their last match, and Head Coach Leslie Gabriel said the Huskies "knew Iowa was a good team. Offensively they are strong and a lot of people produce for them. They can hit a lot of different shots, and I thought they did it really well at the beginning. Thankfully our serve kicked in to help turn that around. We started kind of slow but got better as we went. We're working on controlling what we can control, and it wasn't a clean match all the way, but I didn't see as many ups and downs. We stayed steady until we could take off."

This is the smile of a winner, Bella ?? https://t.co/Fitt2CnMAq
— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) October 31, 2026

Washington got 30 points total from its serving and blocking. Fifteen aces was its most this season, surpassing the previous high of 12, and the 15 blocks beat the previous high of 13.5 from the road win at Michigan State. The Huskies wound up outhitting the Hawkeyes, .286 to .195, but much of that difference stemmed from the fourth set blowout, when UW went on multiple major serving runs, including one by Julia Hunt that saw the third-year middle serve four aces.

When you need to protect the Howse, you call Maija!! Huskies go up 2-1 thanks to consecutive blocks ???? #PointHuskies // @B1GVolleyball https://t.co/QoWcvYDQMv
— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) October 31, 2026

Fifteen was the magic number as in addition to the aces and blocks, Simona Mateska and Sammy Destler shared the team lead with 15 kills apiece. Mateska also had four aces, seven digs, and two blocks. Destler had two aces and three blocks.

Hunt had six kills on eight swings to hit .625 and was one off her aces career-high with five. She also had a huge seven blocks. Katy Wessels also had seven blocks, plus five kills. Andrea Fabikovicova had 41 assists, one ace, four digs, and tied her career-high with five blocks. Kaitlyn Nguyen had 10 digs and two aces, while Addie Kanouff added four kills and two blocks, and Maija Howse had two kills and two blocks, including one to win the pivotal third set.

Up Next: UW has been trading wins and losses but will try to string consecutive dubs together on Sunday when it hosts Maryland at 12 noon. That match will be live on Big Ten Network.

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