Badgers Send off Seniors with Sweep
November 17, 2006 | Volleyball
The No. 10 Wisconsin volleyball team gave its three seniors one last hurrah at the UW Field House with a three-game sweep over Iowa in the Big Ten Conference home finale. Wisconsin honored seniors Amy Bladow, Maria Carlini and Katie Lorenzen with a 30-16, 30-22, 30-20 win in front of 4,998 fans.
'That was a fun win tonight, as a coach I didn't really have to do much,' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'The team really played a solid match, a lot more spirited and high level than we had in about the last week.
'It was great for the seniors to go out in their last Big Ten home match in front of a great crowd. Katie (Lorenzen) did a nice job running the offense and I thought Berks (Amanda Berkley) came up big defensively for us with a lot of plays, and the team overall, with five players in double digit digs, that was the big difference in the match I think if you look at blocking and everything else, that was great.'
The seniors rose to the occasion in their last home match as each of them recorded team highs in various stat categories. Carlini posted a double-double for the Badgers (22-6 overall, 14-4 Big Ten) with her game-high 18 kills and 11 added digs. Bladow chipped in another 12 kills for the UW and she hit a team-high .450 hitting percentage. Wisconsin finished at .266 on the night.
The Hawkeyes struggled on offense, hitting just .072 in the match and were led by Megan Schipper with seven kills.
In her first full match this season, Lorenzen paced the Badger offense with a game-high 48 assists. The team finished with 55 assists while Iowa had just 25. Iowa's Kiley Fister contributed 20 assists.
Defensively, the Badgers were unstoppable with five players finishing in double-digit digs. Berkley led the team with 14 digs while Lorenzen had a career-high 13 digs. Freshman Brittney Dolgner and junior Jocelyn Wack each added 12 digs. Wisconsin outdug the Hawkeyes 69-48.
'I think she made a big difference,' Waite said of Berkley. 'Berks dug a lot of balls, covered a lot of balls and that is just really frustrating for the opponents. There hitters were not able to put balls down. Some of their top hitters were hitting zero and (Berkley) was a big reason for it.'
One area Iowa had the slight edge in was the block. The Hawkeyes tallied eight blocks compared to UW's six stuffs. Bladow led the Badgers with three blocks including one solo, while Lorenzen and junior Taylor Reineke both contributed two blocks. Iowa failed to record a block solo but Melanie Meister and Kiley Fister added four block assists each.
'I thought we were serving tough and I don't think they were able to run a lot of offense,' Waite said. 'Even though our blocks were low; their hitting percentage was down. It's not like they had a high hitting percentage so it's not like that correlated in any way. It was just such a big difference in dig totals that blocking doesn't bother us as far as that goes. '
Carlini and Bladow took turns putting up big numbers in each game. Carlini got the momentum started in game one as she knocked down eight kills while hitting .316. Bladow went 4-0-6 for a .667 hitting percentage in the first game. With the good hitting, UW maintained a solid lead on Iowa throughout the game and used a small three-point run to go up 20-12. Wisconsin remained in command and hit .333 in the 30-16 win.
Next, it was Bladow's turn in game two as she continued her strong hitting. The Monument, Colo., native again tallied no errors and put up five kills while hitting .833 in the game. The Badgers pulled away early and capitalized on six Iowa attack errors during a seven-point run that put the score at 8-1. The Hawkeyes pulled within six points at 22-16 but Dolgner served up a four-point streak including two of her match-high three service aces, to go up 26-16. Iowa pulled within six once more at 27-21 but the Badgers held on for the 30-22 win.
Carlini stepped up big again and knocked down seven kills while hitting .400 in game three. Iowa had the Badgers tied early at 11 but Carlini contributed two kills in a five-point run that put UW up 16-11. Not ready to quit quite yet, Iowa remained within four points until Lorenzen served up a four-point streak to put Wisconsin up 24-17. Iowa would score just three more points in game three as Carlini fittingly put away the match with one final kill to end the game, 30-20.
'It was bittersweet,' Carlini said of her last home match. 'It was kind of emotional at the beginning I think just to have the three seniors out there. To me it didn't really hit me until I walked into the locker room today and (the team) decorated the locker room for us and seeing `Good Job Seniors' and `We'll miss you Seniors' and stuff like that that when it hit me. `I 'm a senior. This is my last Big Ten home match.' I cried; we cried but to go out with a win, that was the best present the team could have given us.'
Wisconsin takes one final road trip of the 2006 Big Ten season next weekend. The UW will face last-place Indiana next Friday and then closes out the regular season with a match-up at fourth-place Purdue Saturday.
