Volleyball Advances to Sweet 16 With Spartan Sweep
December 01, 2001 | Volleyball
The sixth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team swept 20th-ranked Michigan State 30-21, 30-22, 30-24 Saturday in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament. The win improves the Badgers to 27-3 and sends them to the Sweet 16 for fourth time in five years.
Wisconsin will face 15th-ranked Texas A&M, who defeated Texas, 3-0, in the second round, in the NCAA Regional semifinals. Third-ranked Stanford University will host the regional on Friday and Saturday in Palo Alto, Calif. Wisconsin and Texas A&M will play at 5 p.m. PST on Friday with Stanford playing 13th-ranked Utah at 7:30 p.m. PST. The regional championship match will be held on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. PST with the winner advancing to the NCAA Championship on Dec. 13 and 15 in San Diego, Calif.
'We played an excellent match,' Wisconsin coach Pete Waite said. 'Last time we played Michigan State, their top hitter [Erin] Hartley was out, and having their full squad there and still beating them in three games says a lot in how we are playing right now. (The UW players) are very determined to continue moving through the tournament and we are very excited about that.'
Wisconsin continues to give opponents problems from the service line, recording a season-high 12 aces for a three-game match. The Badger defense tallied 11 blocks to limit the Spartans (21-8) to a .112 hitting percentage, while the UW offense hit .272 percent for the match.
'We passed great and we just fought hard,' UW senior setter Lizzy Fitzgerald said. 'We scrambled and kept the ball off the floor. I think that's what makes the difference out there against a big-hitting team.'
Sherisa Livingston led the charge with a match-high 15 kills and six blocks. Jill Odenthal added nine kills, while Erin Byrd and Amy Hultgren had six kills apiece. Lori Rittenhouse led the team with 10 digs. Fitzgerald dished out 32 assists and added a pair of service aces.
Behind four early blocks, the Badgers jumped out to a 5-1 lead in Game 1. Livingston had three of her match-high six blocks during the stretch to key the early lead. The Spartans cut the Badger lead to one at 9-8 off a UW hitting error but Wisconsin came right back to go up 12-8 off a service ace by Sara Urbanek. The Badgers slowly increased their lead, taking their biggest lead of the game at 28-10. Wisconsin had five service aces in the game, including the game-winner by Fitzgerald.
The Badgers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in Game 2 behind the serve of Urbanek who had two of her four aces on the night. Wisconsin extended its lead to 10-2 to force a Michigan State timeout, but the Spartans were unable to slow the Badger offense. Livingston had three kills down the stretch, including a kill at game point, to prevent MSU from evening the match.
Michigan State took its first lead of the match at 4-3 in Game 3, but it would be short lived as the Badgers used a 12-5 run to take a six-point lead at 15-9. MSU trimmed the deficit to four at 23-19, but would get no closer as Wisconsin swept the Spartans out of the tournament thanks to one of 26 Spartan hitting errors on match point.
