Outlasting Wolverines, Badgers Back in First
November 07, 2003 | Volleyball
Despite a quiet start, the 22nd ' ranked Wisconsin volleyball team defeated Michigan (16-9, 8-6) in four games at the UW Field House Friday night. The 30-25, 23-30, 30-26, 30-24 victory, along with Minnesota's loss to Illinois Friday, puts the Badgers (18-6, 10-3) in a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten Conference standings with Penn State and the Gophers.
'That was one of the strangest feeling matches that we 've played in a long time,' Head Coach Pete Waite said. 'I don 't know if it was partly that our band wasn't there to kind of get the crowd going right away. It was great that a high school band came in and helped out, but the Badger Band just does something totally different, taking it to a higher lever to get the crowd going.'
With both teams playing a little off, the Badgers split the first two games with Michigan before taking the final two games of the match.
'Although we were a little bit flat early,' coach Waite added, 'I thought that Michigan was in the same boat. We played well enough to win the first; they played well enough to win the second. We made a little bit of a line-up change in the third, to get some different match ups and I think that it helped out enough. Our players came out of the locker room a little more fired up and wanting to change our level of play on our side of the net.'
Wisconsin was led by junior Jill Odenthal, who registered a double-double on the night. Odenthal tallied 20 kills for a .405 hitting percentage, popped up 10 digs and posted a solo block.
Also contributing to the Badger offense, sophomore Aubrey Meierotto nailed down 19 kills, hitting for .389 percent and posting nine digs, while senior Lisa Zukowski added 15 kills.
Senior Morgan Shields ran the court setting up 60 assists, posting three kills and bringing up eight digs.
The two teams were equally matched as only one kill, one service ace and one dig separated the teams' totals.
Out-serving the Wolverines, Wisconsin recorded seven service aces, with three aces coming from freshman Amy Bladow and two aces from sophomore Sheila Shaw. UM registered six aces and committed nine service errors, compared to UW's six errors.
The Michigan offensive strike was led by senior Erin Moore and sophomore Candace Gay, registering 19 and 18 kills, respectively. Moore hit for an impressive .459 percent, while junior Jennifer Gandolph contributed with a double-double, posting 13 kills and 13 digs.
Junior setter Lisa Gamalski set for 54 assists.
Blocking was the big difference as the Wolverines doubled up on the Badgers, registering six blocks, while the Wisconsin posted three blocks.
Senior Jill Maier led the Badgers defense with 15 digs.
Michigan's senior Nicole Poquette and Gamalski posted 10 and 11 digs, respectively.
The Badgers take on Michigan State Saturday at the UW Field House. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
