UW Moves Into Second Place With MSU Win
November 04, 2006 | Volleyball
The 10th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team kept its winning streak alive and moved into second place in the Big Ten Conference with a 3-1 win at Michigan State. The Badgers downed the Spartans 30-20, 23-30, 30-21, 30-22 to improve to 19-5 overall and 11-3 in the Big Ten. Thanks to a 3-1 win by Michigan over Minnesota, Wisconsin now shares second place in the league with the Golden Gophers.
'It's a great weekend to go on the road here in Michigan,' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'Michigan State especially got a couple plays in there early ' we had trouble stopping them. Jackie (Simpson) dispersed the ball well and we had five players in double-digit kills, which is awfully hard to stop on offense. I think our defense picked up, and our blocking picked up after the second game ' we were challenged and we lived up to it.'
The Badgers used a balanced offense, with five players in double-digit kills, to down the Spartans (15-9, 6-8). Brittney Dolgner led the UW with 16 kills while Taylor Reineke added 14 kills. Maria Carlini, Amy Bladow and Audra Jeffers added 12, 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Wisconsin finished with only a 66-64 advantage in kills over Michigan State, but the Badgers hit .362, their fourth straight match over .300, compared to .241 for the Spartans. State was led by Ashley Schatzle with 22 kills while Katie Johnson added 17 kills.
The Badgers had another impressive night blocking, putting up 14 team blocks while the Spartans had only four blocks. Reineke led all blocks with six stuffs while Carlini added four blocks, including two solos.
Wisconsin was outdug 50-36 as Jocelyn Wack and Amanda Berkley led the team with eight digs apiece. The Spartans had 50 digs and were led by Nicole Colaluca with 17 digs.
Both teams had six service aces. Wisconsin was led by Dolgner with three aces.
Wisconsin jumped out to at 4-0 lead in game one and never looked back. The Badgers hit an impressive .368 as a team in the period and were led by Carlini with five kills. The Spartans cut the lead to two (5-3) but Wisconsin slowly increased its lead to six (14-8) off a MSU setting error. Behind two kills from Jeffers, the Badgers went up 19-11 and led by as many as 12 points (26-14). Michigan State cut the lead to 10 at 27-17 but would get no closer as the Badgers won the first game 30-20.
The Badgers couldn't stop MSU outside hitters Schatzle and Johnson who combined for 19 of the Spartans' 24 kills in game two. Schatzle had four kills of her game-high 13 kills early to put MSU up 7-1. Michigan State controlled the period, lead by nine points several times, including at 26-17. Wisconsin cut the lead to six (26-20) but would get no closer as the Badgers connected on only 13 kills in 35 attempts for a .286 hitting percentage.
Wisconsin didn't lead in game three until 14-13, off one of Reineke's game-high six kills. A service from Dolgner started a 5-0 run for the Badgers, putting the UW up 19-14. Wisconsin hit .515 for the period while holding State to .194 to take a two games to one lead.
Breaking a 3-3 tie with four straight points, the Badgers went up 7-3 in game four and were never challenged. Dolgner led all hitters with five kills while Wisconsin recorded four blocks in the period to hold State to .088.
'We gave them a 6-0 start and they served really tough to begin with and we couldn't get on the board,' Waite said regarding the Badgers' game two loss. 'We only finished with a seven point deficit ' that said a lot for the team and their composure coming out in the third and the fourth and playing up on them the whole time.'
The UW returns home for four of its last six Big Ten matches. Wisconsin hosts Northwestern and Illinois next Friday and Saturday in the UW Field House.
