Volleyball Sweeps Purdue
November 29, 2003 | Volleyball
It's now up to the NCAA committee for the Wisconsin volleyball team. The Badgers did all they could for the upcoming NCAA tournament by sweeping Purdue Saturday night 30-25, 30-26, 30-25 in front of a crowd of 4,212 in the UW Field House. Now Wisconsin has to wait until the 64-team bracket for the championship is announced on Sunday to find out what is in store for the postseason.
'We played two good solid matches, did some nice things, ' said UW head coach Pete Waite. 'Now we find out who we play and where we play. That's the exciting part. You work so hard all season and this is really when the main season starts. Now anything can happen at tournament time.'
The Badgers (21-10, 13-7), who finished in sole possession of fourth place in the Big Ten Conference, are looking for their eighth consecutive and 12th overall appearance in the tournament.
A pre-match salute to the four Badger seniors may have contributed to the Badgers' slow start but Wisconsin ended up by putting on an offensive show against Purdue. The Badgers had four players in double-figure kills to finish with a 59 kills, 20 over the Boilermakers. Senior Lisa Zukowski hammered down a match-high 16 kills while Sheila Shaw added 12 kills. Jill Odenthal and Aubrey Meierotto each pounded 10 kills for the UW.
Purdue (14-17, 7-13) had only one player in double digits as junior Leah Wischmeier cut through the Badger defense 12 times.
Wisconsin connected on 25 percent of its attack compared to only 15 percent for Purdue. Senior Morgan Shields led the Badgers at .500 percent with four kills on six attempts and one error. The setter also put up 43 assists to up her Big Ten-season record for assists to 1,109.
Senior Jill Maier led all players with 14 digs while senior Angie Sanger also saw playing time.
'It was nice to see our seniors go out ' play a good match,' said Waite. 'We're going to miss them. There 's no doubt. They've done some awesome things here for us. We'll miss their personalities and the things they do on the court. We hope to keep it going here in the tournament now, as long as possible so we can keep them around.'
The Badgers had six service aces in the match with two each from Odenthal, Meierotto and Shaw. Freshman Amy Bladow led the UW block with three assists as Purdue outblocked Wisconsin 8-6.
Wisconsin trailed 5-9 in Game 1 before two consecutive Purdue attack errors keyed a 5-0 run by the Badgers, putting the UW up 10-9. The Boilermakers would tie it at 10 and again at 11 but a kill from Odenthal put the Badgers up for good at 12-11.
The UW trailed by one to two points for most of Game 2 but three straight Shaw kills put Wisconsin up 26-23. The Boilermakers closed in at 28-27 on a UW service error but kills from Shields and Meierotto put the Badgers up two games to none.
Following an 11-11 tie in Game 3, three straight Purdue errors put Wisconsin up 14-11. The Badgers led by as much as eight (25-17) but the Boilermakers cut it to four (28-24) on a UW hitting error. A kill from Meierotto followed by a Purdue hitting error gave Wisconsin the sweep.
'I think it's a great way to go out and finish our home schedule in the Big Ten,' said Waite. 'Winning in three against a team like Purdue, who has given a lot of teams fits this year, feels good.'
The bracket for the NCAA tournament will be announced on Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPNews. The Badgers will gather in the McClain Center auditorium for the announcement. The media and public are invited to attend.
