UW Survives Northwestern in Five
November 10, 2006 | Volleyball
It was a `dog day' for the No. 10 University of Wisconsin volleyball team. After winning the first two games, the Badgers used a career day from freshman Brittney Dolgner to finally shake off Northwestern in five games at the UW Field House Friday night. Wisconsin (20-5 overall, 12-3 Big Ten Conference) downed the Wildcats 30-23, 30-19, 24-30, 29-31, 15-13.
'I don't really know why but it was a struggle for us tonight, ' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'We did not play the way we have been playing. I think a number of players did not bring their best game to the court tonight and I think we were carried by some clutch, clutch plays by a freshman ' by Brittney Dolgner. She really saved us tonight.'
Dolgner kept a struggling Wisconsin team in the match with her career-high 30 kills. The team ended with 68 kills on the night as senior Maria Carlini and junior Taylor Reineke both chipped in 10 apiece. For Northwestern (13-11, 7-8), Lindsay Anderson led the squad with 18 kills while three other players tallied double-digit kills.
'I think she made some huge plays all over the court tonight,' Waite said of Dolgner. 'The strange thing is she bumped her knee a couple of days ago and we didn't know if she'd play tonight. She came through and was phenomenal. Whether she was banging off the top of the block, hitting inside of the block, roll-shotting it, back-row attack ' she was in a groove and it was good that (setter) Jackie (Simpson) got her the ball as many times as she did.'
Tonight's match marked the first time since Nov. 5, 2005 that a Big Ten opponent lasted with the Badgers beyond three games in the UW Field House. Including tonight's first two games, Wisconsin had won 26 straight games at home.
Wisconsin's strong hitting of late also ended against Northwestern. The Badgers hit just .156 and were out-hit by the Wildcat's .196. Dolgner again led the Badgers with a .356 hitting percentage. Northwestern's Brittney Aldridge hit .421 in the match.
In assists, Simpson led all players with 56 of UW's 62. For Northwestern, Stephanie Jurivich tallied 52 of her team's 58 assists.
The Badger block had a hard time keeping up with Northwestern tonight. After out-blocking the Wildcats 5.5-0 in game one, Northwestern ended up with 20 blocks in the match compared to UW's 15. Northwestern's Chelsy Hyser tallied nine block assists and three solos. Reineke had 10 block assists and one block solo for the Badgers.
'We had a number of players that are normally red-hot hitters for us and they just were not able to hit their normal shots,' Waite said. 'It was great that Brittney did find her groove and actually Taylor did some nice things offensively; they pulled us through.'
Both teams struggled from the service line. UW had seven service errors on the night while Northwestern really had difficulty with 22.
'Our serving wasn't as strong as it has been,' Waite said. 'Our serve receive was alright; it wasn't bad. We were doing some pretty good things. (There were) a couple of stretches where it wasn't great but it was more that our serving wasn't as aggressive as we've been.'
For digs, junior Jocelyn Wack tallied 20 while Dolgner chipped in 14 and Carlini added 11 of the team's 73 digs. Northwestern ended with 61 digs with Kate Nobilio 's 24 leading the team.
'There were stretches where we should have finished it off a lot sooner, ' Waite said regarding his team's defense. 'But there's just some nights where it's just not there. This was one of them where we were just not clicking as a group and they have to understand that it's just not a given ' you just show up on the court and it's going to happen like magic every night. There's nights where you're going to have to make it a lot harder actually to make it all work right.'
In game one both teams stuck within one point of each other early on. UW was down four at 14-18 and went on a four-point streak behind the service of Carlini to tie the score at 18. Northwestern then again went up by one but that would be its last lead of the game as the Badgers went on another seven-point streak with Wack serving six points to go up 25-19. Wisconsin held on in game one to win 30-23.
In game two, Northwestern tallied the first two points but again, Wisconsin used a few streaks to build a lead. The Badgers maintained a comfortable lead on the Wildcats and were up by as many as nine at 19-10. Northwestern came as close as five points at 20-15 but Wisconsin would score eight out of the next 10 points to win game two, 30-19.
Northwestern turned it around in game three and went up by as many as six points at 20-14 and 21-15. UW tried to climb back into the game and pulled within three points at 22-19. A bad set and an attack error by Northwestern put the Badgers within one at 22-21. UW came within one point three more times but 25-24 would be the closest they got as Northwestern scored the next five points to take game three, 30-24.
Even though they had not played a game four in the Field House in quite some time, the Badgers seemed poised to finally knock off the Wildcats. UW was up by four at 19-15 but then Northwestern started to chip away and finally tied the score at 24 after a Badger attack error. Wisconsin again pulled ahead by three at 28-25 but the Wildcats again clawed their way back in and held off match point three times to tie the Badgers at 29. Northwestern used a four-point streak starting at the 29-27 score and pushed the match into five after a 31-29 win.
After Wisconsin went up 3-0 in game five, Northwestern outserved the Badgers 6-0 to take the 6-3 advantage. The Wildcats held onto the lead at 9-6 but UW used a four-point streak with two kills from Carlini to take control at 10-9. Northwestern tied the score at 10 and then went up one at 11-10 but another three-point streak put the Badgers up 13-11. The Wildcats pulled within one at 13-12 and 14-13 but the Badgers finally ended the game 15-13 fittingly with a kill from Dolgner.
Wisconsin returns to the Field House tomorrow for another Big Ten match-up against Illinois at 7 p.m.
'We didn't play that well tonight,' Reineke said. 'We got the `W' and that's all that matters. We're just going to throw this one away and move forward and try not to look back on tonight. I think we've been playing really well the past few weekends and just tonight was off. I think that tomorrow night we'll definitely pick it up.'
