Meierotto Leads Wisconsin Over Michigan
November 18, 2005 | Volleyball
Senior outside hitter Aubrey Meierotto helped the 15th-ranked Badgers avenge an early season defeat at Michigan with a 30-27, 30-14, 30-27 win over the Wolverines Friday night at the UW Field House. Meierotto did not play in Wisconsin's loss in Ann Arbor on Oct. 22 due to pneumonia but came back in the home contest with a match-high 15 kills to keep the Badgers in second place in the Big Ten Conference.
'I'm really happy with this win,' said head coach Pete Waite. 'I think we played better than we have in a couple of weeks as far as good team play.
'I think partly we were more on tonight, partly having Aubrey out there,' said Waite. 'Our block really started slowing them down; they really started doubting their swings for awhile there and then they tried some things that forced some errors. That's part of our game plan; that's what we want to do.'
Wisconsin (20-6, overall, 12-5 Big Ten) had a .322 hitting percentage for the match. Meierotto was the only Badger with double-figures in kills. Sophomores Maria Carlini and Taylor Reineke had nine kills apiece. Carlini was the most efficient Badger, converting .556 of her attack attempts. Audra Jeffers' 11-match streak with double-figure kills was snapped as she registered eight.
The Badgers used late surges came out strong in game one thanks to Meierotto and Carlini. Meierotto asserted herself early in the match with consecutive kills and a block to give the Badgers a 7-4 edge. With the game tied 14-14, Carlini gave the Badgers the lead for good with three consecutive kills. With Wisconsin up 27-26, a Meierotto kill and a service ace from libero Jocelyn Wack led a 4-1 game-winning run.
'The last couple of games I've been struggling with my hitting so to just come out tonight and stay aggressive ' I just think it really paid off,' said Carlini.
Setter Jackie Simpson coordinated the Wisconsin attack with a match-high 40 assists as well as four blocks.
'I thought our passing was strong and Jackie set a really good match,' said Waite. 'We just wanted to come out and prove we were a much better team than the way we played at Michigan ' so this was good for us. '
The Badgers totaled 11 team blocks to hold the Michigan attack to a .160 hitting percentage. Two of the Big Ten's top blockers performed well led by Sheila Shaw's match-high six blocks. Reineke, Simpson and Jeffers all added four blocks for the UW.
Michigan (13-13 overall, 7-10 Big Ten) had problems on the attack throughout the match and was not helped by its serving performance. The Wolverines struggled at the service line with 12 service errors and only three service aces. In comparison, the Badgers had three service aces as well but with only seven service errors.
'The great thing about rally scoring is that you get a point automatically on that,' said Waite. 'I think when we played at their place, they could do no wrong they were serving tough ' low errors 'banging the ball, digging everything. Tonight they weren't quite as on and those were points for us; we'll take them anyway we can get them. '
With runs of four and six consecutive points, Wisconsin took control early and easily won game two. Two kills by Reineke helped UW jump out to a 16-10 lead. Then a 6-0 run highlighted by two kills from Meierotto gave the Badgers a 25-13 advantage they would not lose.
'I think you can definitely tell when a team is down and it 's when you are making really big plays on your side,' said Meierotto. 'We take advantage of that (when) teams are struggling.'
Wack and Carlini extended several long rallies with quality digs for the Badger defense in the back row. Carlini collected 10 digs while the libero Wack extended her double-figure digs streak to 57 matches with a match-high 16 digs.
'I think those plays definitely get you pretty fired up, ' said Meierotto of the Badgers' defense. 'Those big plays that you make in games just fires the whole team up and gets you going.'
The Badgers kept the momentum going and wrapped up the match with a 30-27 win in game three, led by five more Meierotto kills and four from both Shaw and Reineke.
Wisconsin hosts the Michigan State Spartans Saturday at 7 p.m. in the UW Field House. Seniors Meierotto and Shaw will honored before their final regular-season home match.
