Badgers Alone in Second Place
November 11, 2005 | Volleyball
The 13th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team remained in second place in the Big Ten Conference standings with a 30-20, 30-28, 30-23 win at Iowa on Friday night. The Badgers (19-5 overall, 11-4 Big Ten) take over sole possession of second in the conference following Purdue's loss to Penn State and Minnesota's loss to Northwestern.
'I thought we played a good match tonight,' said head coach Pete Waite. 'Our kids came out with a little more focus and intensity. Our game plan was to connect on the center and right side of the court and we did a good job of that. We came up with some big numbers.'
Wisconsin used a strong offensive performance, hitting .317 as a team, while holding Iowa (14-13, 4-10) to .157. Senior Sheila Shaw led the Badgers with 16 kills and a .517 hitting percentage. Audra Jeffers added 10 kills to the UW attack that finished with a 52-46 advantage in kills. Iowa was led by Catherine Smale with 11 kills as the only Hawkeye in double figures.
'Shaw did great. Jeffers was awesome on the right and Taylor (Reineke) had seven hits and no errors so that was fantastic,' said Waite.
The Badgers outblocked the Hawkeyes 9-5, led by five blocks from Taylor Reineke, and also finished with a 60-53 advantage in digs. Jocelyn Wack upped her string of double-figure digs to 55 matches with a match-high 22 digs. Sophomore Jackie Simpson added a double-double with 10 digs and ran the Badger offense, putting up 43 assists.
Led by seven kills from Shaw and 11 digs from Wack, the Badgers controlled the first game, jumping out to a 12-7 lead. Behind four kills from Jeffers, Wisconsin went up 16-9 before Iowa cut it to three (18-15) off a kill from Smale. Two kills from Reineke put the Badgers back up by seven (24-17) and four kills from Shaw gave the UW the game.
Game two featured nine early ties before the Hawkeyes took their first lead of the game at 10-9. Iowa led 13-10 before Wisconsin rallied to tie the score at 13 off two kills from Meierotto. The Badgers led 16-14 off another kill from Meierotto but the Hawkeyes came back to tie the game at 16. Wisconsin went up 19-17 but again Iowa scored seven straight points, including off service aces from Emily Hiza, to take its largest lead of the game at 24-19. Simpson keyed a 7-2 run by the Badgers with a kill and a block solo to knot the game at 26. The score was tied again at 27 before a kill from Shaw and an Iowa hitting error gave Wisconsin its first game point. It took two attempts but a kill from Meierotto put the Badgers up 2-0.
Wisconsin got back on track in game three, jumping out to a 9-5 lead, behind three team blocks. The Badgers had five blocks in the period to hold the Hawkeyes to a .118 hitting percentage for the game. Wisconsin led by nine (21-12) before Iowa cut the lead to six (21-15) but the Hawkeyes would get no closer as the Badgers went on for the sweep.
With only Big Ten regular-season matches remaining, Wisconsin looks to maintain its second-place standing in the Big Ten as it travels to 17th-ranked Minnesota on Saturday.
'Everyone is more into the race now (at the end of the season). If we're going to try and to get second place and accomplish a great goal, it's important that we have a good match tomorrow on the road. (Winning at Minnesota) would be an awesome win for us,' said Waite.
'We are pleased with the win and hopefully we can play some good volleyball in that Minnesota match.'
