Volleyball Falls to Michigan State
November 08, 2003 | Volleyball
What should have been an inspired win for the Wisconsin volleyball team turned out to be a tough and somewhat controversial loss to Michigan State. The 22nd-ranked Badgers were playing to win for a number of reasons: avenge an early season loss to the Spartans; move into a two-way tie for first place in the Big Ten Conference with Penn State following a Minnesota loss at Northwestern tonight; and work towards hosting first and second-round play in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
Instead, Michigan State edged Wisconsin 30-26, 21-30, 22-30, 30-25, 15-8. The Badgers (18-7, 10-4) fall into a three-way tie for second place with Illinois and Minnesota in the conference while Penn State (11-3) takes over solo possession of first place. The Spartans (17-7, 9-5) move into fifth place. The loss marks the first time since 1996 that Michigan State won both matches in a season against Wisconsin.
'It was a tough match tonight,' said UW coach Pete Waite. 'It was disappointing that we couldn't finish off and get the win after we heard that Minnesota lost tonight, which would've been great for us to move up in the standings.
'I thought that we had the match going our way after the third (game). We were playing some great ball. I thought that they were struggling ' (but) they made some changes and got back into their own groove and played some good ball at the end.'
The match came down to the fifth game where the Spartans jumped out to a 7-4 lead. A controversial no call at the serving line, put State up 8-4. The Spartans ' Kim Schram tossed the ball up for the serve before the referee's whistle blew. She caught the ball after the whistle and served. Collegiate rules do not allow for a re-toss and the Wisconsin coaches thought that the play should have been either replayed or a point awarded to the Badgers. Instead, a UW hitting error ended the play.
'It's a judgment call on (the referee's) part whether or not that should be a replay, or our point and you can't protest a judgment call,' explained Waite. 'We protested, but we can't officially protest that kind of call. You only get one chance (to serve) and we felt she took two chances. So that was pretty critical. That was at the point 'the turnaround when we switch sides.'
The Spartans, who had five blocks in Game 5, shut down the Badger offense allowing Wisconsin only three kills the rest of the period. The UW hit a negative .167 percent for the game to bring its match total down to .206. State hit .239 percent for the match.
'We weren't passing as well and we only had one option at times,' said Waite of the Spartan block in the fifth game. 'So they were able to load up on our hitters.'
On the night, Wisconsin was led by Aubrey Meierotto with 17 kills and a .324 hitting percentage. Jill Odenthal and Lisa Zukowski, who started the match at libero but played the last four games in the front row, each put down 15 kills. Amy Bladow added 10 kills to the UW offense.
The left-side hitting duo of Schram and Sara Villwock combined for 41 of the Spartans 73 kills. Schram had a match-high 22 kills while Villwock put down 19.
The Spartans totaled 13.5 blocks for the match compared to only six for the Badgers. State also had a 69-61 advantage in digs, despite only one player in double figures. Marian Weidner led Wisconsin with 14 digs while Zukowski added 13 and Jill Maier 12.
The only area that the Badgers outplayed the Spartans was at the serving line where the UW had six aces, including two from Bladow, compared to four for MSU.
Wisconsin plays four of its last six matches on the road including at trip to Northwestern and Illinois next weekend
