Wisconsin Falls to Northwestern in Four
November 14, 2003 | Volleyball
For the second straight year, the Wisconsin volleyball team lost at Northwestern. This year the Wildcats won a 24-30, 30-23, 35-33, 30-26 battle over the 23rd ranked Badgers. Wisconsin falls to 18-8 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten Conference while Northwestern moves to 17-11, 8-8. UW drops to fourth place in the Big Ten standings behind first place Penn State, and second place tied Illinois and Minnesota.
'We came out and really played nicely in the first game, ' Head Coach Pete Waite said. "We had good ball control. I thought the last two days of practice were very good and they were ready for this match. But in the second game we starting losing our passing a little bit. It didn't worry me too much, but into the third (game) our passing was struggling.'
Both teams had four players in double-figure kills. Aubrey Meierotto shared match-high honors with Northwestern's Erica Lange with 18 kills. For the Badgers, Lisa Zukowski and Sheila Shaw each put down 13 kills and Jill Odenthal added 12 kills. Iwona Lodzik put down 16 kills for the Wildcats while Christie Gardner and Jill Buschur each added 12 kills.
'We were not giving Morgan (Shields) the opportunity to set balls because she had to chase it around,' coach Waite added. 'Our offense was having trouble putting balls away. Give Northwestern credit, they fought hard and battled at the right time. In statistics we actually out-did them in a number of categories.'
Northwestern finished with a slight 69-66 advantage in kills though Wisconsin hit .258 percent compared to .217 percent for the Wildcats. The Badgers also played a better defensive game with 68 digs, led by 14 from Jill Maier and 12 from Morgan Shields. Northwestern totaled 52 digs led by Lodzik with 14.
Both teams had 12 blocks. Wisconsin was led by Sheila Shaw was a season-high nine, including two solos.
The Wildcats also outserved the Badgers with nine service aces compared to six for Wisconsin. Odenthal had three aces, all in Game 1, to lead the team.
Shaw keyed a 6-0 run by the Badgers in the middle of Game 1 to put Wisconsin up by eight points. With the UW up 16-14, Shaw had three consecutive kills, teamed with Zukowski on a block and set Meierotto up for a kill to put the Badgers up 21-14. Odenthal added her third service ace of the game for Wisconsin's greatest lead. Northwestern would cut it to five (26-21) but the Badgers continued to hit well (.438 for the game) for the win.
Wisconsin's serve receive broke down in Game 2 and the Badgers could never get their offense going. The UW hit .257 percent for the period as Northwestern had four aces in the period and kept the Badgers off balance. Wisconsin trailed 12-11 before Northwestern scored six straight points to go up 17-11. The Badgers cut it to two (18-16) behind two blocks from Shaw and Maria Carlini but the Wildcats got back on a roll to go up 23-16 behind two aces from Drew Robertson.
The Badgers rallied from a five-point deficit (18-13) in Game 3 to tie the score at 23. Wisconsin led 26-23 keyed by a block solo from Shaw but Northwestern tied it at 26 off a kill from Jill Buschur. The Badgers served for the game at 29-27 but two consecutive Wildcat kills tied the score again. The game would feature four more ties before a UW hitting error put Northwestern up two games to one.
After losing the third game, Wisconsin couldn't get back on track in the fourth game falling behind 10-5. The Badgers would cut the Wildcats lead to one (25-24) but Northwestern kept up the pressure for the win.
'We just needed a couple of people to step up in passing, ' coach Waite added, 'and it wasn't there tonight.'
The Badgers play at 25th-ranked Illinois on Saturday at 7 p.m.
