Wisconsin Volleyball Swept By Penn State
November 22, 2002 | Volleyball
The No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers were stumped by the No. 17 Penn State Nittany Lions (22-6 overall, 12-5 Big Ten) Friday night. The Badgers (21-8, 12-6) were swept 30-27, 30-24, 30-27. It is the first time the volleyball team has been swept at home since Nov. 6, 1998, also against Penn State. The heartbreaker was played in front of 6,761 fans, the third largest crowd in UW volleyball history.
'I sure didn't expect we'd go down in three,' said UW head coach Pete Waite. 'We just weren't able to get our passing on track early in the match. We were just making some mental errors that often times we don't. And you do that against a good team that's playing very well and you're going to take one on the chin.'
The UW did suffer offensively, hitting .260 percent to the Lions ' .364 percent on the night. The Badger attack was led by match-leader Erin Byrd with 21 kills and Jill Odenthal with 11. Two Penn State athletes scored double-digit kills as well; Cara Smith, 19 and Mishka Levy, 15.
'We just didn't have an answer for them tonight. You know, if they get it by your block, you got to dig the ball. And we were just not doing either, until a little too late. I think they were making some big digs. Dig-wise we out-dug them, but they made some big ones at crucial times.'
The Badgers did out-dig Penn State 50 to 35, but the Lions' 13 blocks crushed the Badgers' five.
Wisconsin came on strong in Game 1 jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The Lions turned things around with a burst that tied the game at seven. Breaking the tie, the Badgers continued to rack up the points with the Lions in tow until another tie at 17-17. The Lions took advantage of several Badger hitting errors and steadily took the rest of the points.
Game 2 and 3 were just as tense with the Badgers playing catch-up throughout.
'I don't know if you have an answer, there 's a lot of things that go on during matches. You can't pinpoint one or two things, sometimes it's something you can't even describe,' said setter Morgan Shields. 'It felt to me, that we could never catch up to their pace, they were just playing faster than us the whole time. We just couldn't get control. They were controlling the pace, and that makes us feel one step behind. '
The UW will be gearing up for their last weekend of Big Ten Conference play at Michigan (Nov. 29) and Michigan State (Nov. 30). The team will await word from the NCAA tournament committee on Dec. 1 for the post-season bids.
