Badger Volleyball Finishes the Weekend With a Win
November 01, 2003 | Volleyball
It wasn't pretty but the 20th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team completed a 30-26, 30-26, 30-24 at the University of Iowa Saturday night. The Badgers improved to 17-6 overall and stay tied for second in the Big Ten Conference at 9-3. Iowa dropped its 13th straight match, falling to 5-17, 0-12.
The Badgers had 19 unforced hitting errors in the match to hit .223 percent. But Wisconsin had 11.5 blocks to hold Iowa to a .113 hitting percentage.
'We were pretty sluggish tonight and I think part of that was coming off the loss at Minnesota last night,' Head Coach Pete Waite explained. 'I think the kids are a little strained emotionally and we started out very flat. They did a nice job coming back from behind in the first to get that one because Iowa was playing some good ball and they are much improved from the last time we saw them. '
Sophomore Aubrey Meierotto led all hitters with 17 kills and a .412 hitting percentage. Sheila Shaw added 12 kills and shared match-high honors with five stuffs. Maria Carlini, who played most of the match on the right side for Jill Odenthal, also had five blocks, including three solos.
'I think (Maria) Carlini did a great job for us,' Waite commented. 'I think she came in for (Jill) Odenthal and really had a great hitting percentage, took some nice balls and just really gave us some good energy out there.'
Iowa was led by Laura Simpson with 13 kills but the junior also had 13 hitting errors. Carolyn Giese added 10 kills for Iowa.
'We did a good job on (Laura) Simpson, she's normally their kill leader, but with 13 kills, 13 errors, you can't do a better job than that,' Waite said.
Lisa Zukowski, who played libero in the third game, led the Badgers with 10 digs. Iowa finished with a slight 54-52 advantage in digs with three players in double figures.
Wisconsin finished with a 5-1 advantage on the serving line with five aces, all from different players.
The Badgers had 10 unforced errors in Game 1 giving the Hawkeyes a 18-12 lead. Behind the serve of Shields, Wisconsin cut the lead to one (18-17) but Iowa upped its lead to three (23-20) on a kill from Giese. A kill from Shaw tied the game at 23 but the Badgers didn't take their first lead of the period until 27-26 on a Meierotto kill. Meierotto hammered down two more of her game-high seven kills to give Wisconsin the game.
The Badgers took control of Game 2 early, jumping out to leads of 7-4 and 11-7. But the Hawkeyes battled back to tie the game at 15. Iowa led by one or two points until Wisconsin tied the score at 22 off a Shaw kill. The game was tied at 23, 24, 25 and 26 points before the front-row blocking trio of Shaw, Zukowski and Maria Carlini combined for three straight blocks to put the Badgers up 29-26. Wisconsin had seven blocks in the second game alone. An Iowa hitting error put Wisconsin up two games to none.
Wisconsin switched its line-up in Game 3, moving Zukowski to libero and starting Weidner in the front row. The change paid off as the Badgers jumped out to a 12-4 lead and was never challenged. The Hawkeyes cut it to four (28-24) but a kill from Shaw and a block by Shaw and Shields completed the sweep.
The Badgers are tied for second place in the Big Ten with Penn State after the Nittany Lions swept the Illini Saturday night.
Wisconsin returns home to the UW Field House next weekend, hosting Michigan and Michigan State on Friday and Saturday. Both matches start at 7 p.m.
