Volleyball Sweeps Purdue
November 16, 2002 | Volleyball
The 14th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team completed a weekend sweep of its opponents with a 30-19, 30-16, 30-26 win over Purdue in front of 3,914 fans in the UW Field House. The Badgers (20-7 overall, 11-5), who swept Illinois Friday night; remain tied for second place in the Big Ten. The 20-win season is the ninth in a row for Wisconsin.
'I was really happy with our whole weekend,' said UW head coach Pete Waite. 'This was a good match for us. I thought we played really strong throughout it. I thought maybe the last half of the third game we faded a little bit. It's hard sometimes (when) the other team isn't putting too much pressure on you.'
The Badgers dominated the Boilers (11-18, 1-15) jumping out to a 9-2 lead in Game 1 and a 13-6 lead in Game 2. Only the third period was tight as Purdue battled back from a 16-10 deficit to pull within two (26-24). Three kills from Wisconsin's middle blockers'Amy Hultgren and Sheila Shaw'helped the Badgers pull away for the sweep.
'Purdue's plan in Game 3 was serving us short to try to take us out of our offense and they did a good job of it for awhile,' explained Waite. 'But obviously we came through and finished it off.'
Senior Erin Byrd, who led the Badgers with 11 digs, credited Purdue 's improved passing for the close Game 3. 'It's just not finishing off the match. We want to finish it strong but Purdue started passing it a little bit better and they got their game going. We stayed strong and we were ahead the whole game.'
Wisconsin used a strong serving game with 11 aces to throw the Boilermakers off their offense. Junior Jill Maier had a career high three service aces while Byrd also had three aces. The Badgers had only six service errors and were only aced twice by the Boilers.
Hultgren led all hitters with 12 kills and Byrd recorded a double-double, adding 11 kills to her 11 digs. Wisconsin totaled 54 kills as a team compared to 27 for Purdue and outhit the Boilermakers .225 percent to .035 percent.
Coach Waite credited setter Morgan Shields with spreading out the Badger offense and also putting away some strategically-placed kills, 'This was one of (Morgan's) best weekends as far as variety and where she was going with things'five kills, one error and seven attempts'that's awfully good.'
Shields put up 41 assists in running the Badger offense as well as eight digs and two blocks.
'We do work at lot in setters' practice,' said Shields. 'If I can stay active, I want the blockers to jump on me so I can open up my middles and open up the outsides.'
Wisconsin also outdug Purdue 55-35 and outblocked the Boilers 8-6. Hultgren led all blockers with four stuffs.
The Badgers wrap up their Big Ten home season a match against Northwestern on Wednesday and against Penn State on Friday. Both matches are at 7 p.m. in the UW Field House.
