IOWA CITY — Jim Barnes was focused on Iowa volleyball starting its season 2-0. His own milestone wasn’t on the forefront of his mind.
Five hundred career wins isn’t something to simply gloss over, however, and the Hawkeyes wanted to make sure Barnes got his flowers as early as possible.
“If that means we’re 2-0 when I reach 500, that’s what I’m mostly focused on,” Barnes said Aug. 31. “It’s a neat deal.”
Iowa volleyball opened its 2026 season 3-0, taking down Army, UAlbany and Sacred Heart in the Black Knight Invitational. It’s the second consecutive season the Hawkeyes have started 3-0 under Barnes.
Barnes secured win No. 500 after beating UAlbany, 3-1, on Aug. 29. Since then, he said former players and coworkers have been texting to congratulate him on the milestone.
“Just all the relationships from all those years, and really the most fun is all the former players,” Barnes said. “Hearing from them, even the ones I don’t think really liked me back then, they’re still reaching out and talking about how much they appreciate things.”
The opening six matches of Iowa’s season are all on the road, including the Hawkeyes’ two-match visit to Starkville, Mississippi for the Big Ten/SEC Challenge, facing Mississippi State and Alabama.
Barnes helped bring Iowa to one of its most successful seasons since 2019 last year, starting the year 6-0 before finishing the season 15-17, including a 10-6 record inside Xtream Arena.
Iowa won’t play its first match at home this year until Sept. 10 for the Hawkeye Invitational, then hosting Drake Sept. 16.
Barnes has been focusing on how to blend together this new roster after losing setter Claire Ammeraal, outside hitter Chard’e Vanzandt and libero Mo Moisio.
“We've seen the left side play really high level, and so the ones that played those four that played on the left side have been putting up the numbers to play,” Barnes said. “We wanted to see more out of them. We finally saw it in the third match.”
It’s still a brand new season, so reaching 500 wins was just one step in the right direction. Barnes is solely focused on prepping the Hawkeyes for Big Ten play later this year.
“Just being 2-0 and and watching this team grow over all three matches was important,” Barnes said.
Madison Hricik covers Iowa football and Iowa Athletics for The Gazette. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, at thegazette.com. She can be reached at [email protected].