Marquette University Athletics
Women's Basketball To Meet Second-Straight Undefeated Team
12/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Marquette takes on 6-0 Iowa
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Coming off its first loss of the season, Marquette will get a chance to get back in the win column on Wednesday, Dec. 8 at Iowa at 7 p.m. in Iowa City. The Golden Eagles and Hawkeyes are continuing a recent string of games in which the two teams have met five times since 1999.
The Hawkeyes bring a 6-0 record into the game with Marquette. Iowa is six points away from being in the Associated Press top 25 this week, and is the unraked team with the most points in the poll.
Marquette was off to its best start in school history, jumping out of the gates 5-0. A loss to Wis.-Green Bay puts Marquette at 5-1 heading into the Iowa game. Marquette can match last season?s start as the best seven game start in school history if it picks up the road victory.
In the fifth meeting of the series last year, Iowa came out on top of a thriller, 65-62, at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Marquette started strong in the first half, building up a lead as big as 10 in the early going. Marquette held on to that lead until the 4:17 mark when Iowa made a furious comeback. Iowa tied the score with 57 seconds remaining. Three Hawkeye free throws were the difference as a Carolyn Kieger three-pointer at the final buzzer from the right wing narrowly missed in an effort to force overtime.
With a Win against Iowa ...
Marquette be 6-1 and would tie last season?s team with the best seven-game start in school history ... Marquette would stop a four-game Iowa win streak in the series ... Marquette would avoid losing back to back games for the first time since Feb. 20 and 22 of 2004.
Scouting Iowa
Iowa is off to its best start at 6-0 since the 1995-96 season, when it started 7-0. The Hawkeyes are coming off wins over in-state rivals Iowa State (89-80) and Northern Iowa (77-50) as part of a homestand, which includes the Marquette contest.
Iowa comes into the contest with an RPI of 10 and has the 33rd ranked schedule in the nation according to CollegeRPI.com. In addition to the two wins over Iowa schools, the Hawkeyes have wins over Missouri, Florida, Oklahoma and Southern Illinois.
In the win over Northern Illinois, Junior guard Crystal Smith scored 21 points to lead the high-scoring Hawkeyes, who are averaging 71.0 points per game. Stacy Schlapkohl scored 18 off the bench for Iowa in that win. Against Iowa State, five players scored 10 or more, led by 19 from senior center Jamie Cavey. Cavey and Smith have had a couple of big games each this year. Cavey also scored 19 against Florida and Smith tossed in 26 points against Missouri.
Freshman Krista VandeVenter is off to an amazing start on the glass, grabbing 7.8 rebounds per game in her young career.
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder is in her fifth season at Iowa and owns a 79-49 record. In 21 years as a head coach, Bluder is 435-191.
On the Air: The Marquette/Iowa game is broadcast on KXIC 800 AM with Brent Balbinot and Karen Schulte calling the action. It will be available via www.hawkeyesports.com and is on the Yahoo! network (www.yahoo.com).
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