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37 A er playing inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena for 38 years, the University of Iowa women's volleyball team will now call Xtream Arena home. e Hawkeyes broke in the new arena in Coralville, Iowa, on Feb. 5 with a 3-1 win over Indiana. e win was the first of the season for a young Iowa bunch that features 12 underclassmen. "is has been a long time coming," Iowa head coach Vicki Brown said. "It has been a long countdown to finally get this first match in Xtream Arena. It feels great. We got it. We're moving on. We're excited." Despite not being able to pack the 5,100-seat arena due to COVID-19 healthy and safety measures, the team fed off cheers from the crowd that featured family members of student-athletes and coaches. Despite the limited spectator capacity, Iowa was able to feel an intimate, lively playing environment. "at's the thing we love about the arena, even with just our families here, we felt the energy from the crowd," Brown said. "We're looking forward to getting closer to a full arena in the future. We're thrilled to be here." In Iowa's arena-opening win, the Hawkeyes totaled 51 kills with a season-high .227 attack percentage. Junior middle blocker Hannah Clayton led Iowa, setting career highs in kills (13) and attack percentage (.667). "We've been excited for this before I even committed to Iowa," Clayton said. "It was so fun to be able to come out with a win against Indiana and execute on all things we've been working on this week and do it as a team." Clayton and fellow junior Courtney Buzzerio, who recorded her third career triple-double in Iowa's five-set loss to Indiana on Feb.6 in the finale of opening weekend at Xtream, have stepped into leadership roles. Buzzerio tallied 13 kills, 21 assists and 11 digs to record the program's fourth triple-double in the last 20 years. An outside hitter by trade, Buzzerio has been asked to do a little bit of everything in her Hawkeye career. She followed in her older sister Meghan's footsteps to come to the University of Iowa from Chino Hills, California. "Courtney's leadership is 100 percent through action," Brown said. "She is very stoic. e thing with Courtney is that she is finding this year, as a junior, is her contribution in points can be spread out. She is in a groove right now and she is learning how to work out of those moments when a team challenges her in a different stat line." Buzzerio leads Iowa with 56 kills and ranks second in assists (83) and digs (47). ree freshmen — Bailey Ortega, Audrey Black, and Leanne Lowry — have burst onto the scene for the Hawkeyes to start the season. Ortega has started every game of her collegiate career at setter and leads the team with 120 assists. Black and Lowry, both Colorado natives, have started the last three games. In their first career starts at Purdue on Jan. 30, the two recorded career highs: Black with 10 kills and Lowry with 13 digs. FEBRUARY SCHEDULE Feb. 12 at Ohio State Feb. 13 at Ohio State Feb. 19 Rutgers Feb. 20 Rutgers Feb. 26 at Northwestern Feb. 27 at Northwestern