Volleyball Downs Illinois 3-1
November 11, 2006 | Volleyball
The No. 10 University of Wisconsin volleyball team closed out the weekend home stand at the UW Field House with a 3-1 win over Illinois. After fighting to a five-game win over Northwestern Friday night, the Badgers (21-5 overall, 13-3 Big Ten Conference) overcame the Illini 30-16, 28-30, 30-22, 30-19.
'I'm pleased with the win,' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'We had a little lull in the second game, but I think we made some adjustments that worked out for us. I was pleased to see that I think our team was playing with a little more attitude and really it started when we were down six (points) in the fourth. At that point they really kicked it into gear and really started fighting and that's the thing that we needed to do.'
UW received strong hitting from a number of players, most notably from sophomore Audra Jeffers. The Hartland, Wis., native recorded a career high .722 hitting percentage with 13 kills on 18 attempts with no errors. That was the fourth best hitting percentage for a Badger in a four-game match.
'Well, setting was great and that comes with great passing,' Jeffers said. 'I think I just stayed aggressive the entire night and I just really wanted to play well. In practice I've been giving it my all and waiting for the day to come where I have a solid game and I'm glad that happened tonight.'
After a 30-kill performance Friday, freshman Brittney Dolgner again led all players with 18 kills. Senior Maria Carlini chipped in 14 kills while the Badgers out-hit Illinois 67-54 on kills. For the Illini (14-11, 5-10), Vicki Brown's 13 kills led the team while Kylie McCulley and Stephanie Alde chipped in 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
With the great hitting, Wisconsin got back on track and hit over .300 in the match. The team ended the night at .366 and went .500 or better in games one (.519) and two (.500). Illinois ended the night at .208.
Another Badger had a career night on the block. Senior Amy Bladow tallied a career-high nine block assists, breaking her previous record of eight in a match. The Badgers ended the night with 14 blocks compared to Illinois' eight. Jeffers and Dolgner both added five block assists while junior Taylor Reineke added the lone Badger solo block and three more block assists. For Illinois, Brown led her team with one block solo and three assists.
In assists, junior Jackie Simpson paced the Badgers with 50 of the teams' 58 assists. Illinois tallied just 44 with Lizzie Bazzetta recording 37 assists.
UW outdug Illinois 40-35. Junior Jocelyn Wack led the Badgers with 10 digs while Dolgner contributed nine. Simpson and Carlini added seven and six digs, respectively. Illinois ' Ashley Edinger led all players with 13 digs.
Wisconsin used two big streaks in game one to go up on Illinois. With the score tied at nine, UW went on a seven-point stretch behind the service of Carlini to go up 16-9. The Badgers went on another six-point streak from Wack's service to extend the lead, 22-10. Illinois could not close the gap on the Badgers as UW took game one, 30-16.
Game two remained close as the teams tied each other 14 times in the game. After a Reineke kill knotted the score at 24 apiece, Illinois knocked down two kills to go up 26-24 and never looked back. UW pulled within one at 28-27 and 28-29 but a kill by McCulley gave the Illini game two, 30-28.
'If you look at the game scores ' 16, 22 and 19 ' the ones that we won were great,' Waite said. 'Again, we have to get past that lull in the second game, but I think we are. And we made some adjustments in the line-up ' the way we position ourselves and it worked pretty well.'
Determined not to extend the match into five games like Friday night, UW came out strong in game three. The Badgers went up by eight at 18-10. Illinois scored the next two points to come within six at 18-12. The Illini cut the lead to five twice at 22-17 and 23-18 but that would be the closest they got and Wisconsin took game three, 30-22.
The Illini gave the Badgers a scare early in game four with a few leads. They went up by as many as six at 17-11. Wisconsin answered back with yet another streak and didn 't just cut the lead, but took over the game. Junior Amanda Berkley served up an 11-point streak with Carlini contributing three kills to put UW up 22-17. Illinois would score just two more points in the game and Wisconsin sent Illinois packing, 30-19.
'Usually we are talking about a specific play that we want to run, but it 's about fighting and battling and getting it one point at a time and chipping away at the lead,' Waite said regarding his team's 11-point streak. 'And they did that and they are always capable of it. I always trust they can. Once they kick it into gear they do some great things.'
In just four days, Wisconsin battles Minnesota for sole possession of second place in the Big Ten. Match time is set for 7 p.m. at the UW Field House.
