UW Sweeps ISU, Advances to Sweet 16
December 02, 2006 | Volleyball
The No. 10 Wisconsin volleyball team (26-6) can kiss the UW Field House good-bye, but not the 2006 season. With their 30-20, 30-25, 30-27 sweep over Iowa State (21-11) in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Championship, the Badgers advance to the round of 16 for the third year in a row.
'I'm really happy with the way we played,' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'I think Jackie (Simpson) had a really good night dispersing the ball. We had a couple people step up offensively especially Taylor (Reineke) and Audra (Jeffers). Just overall a good team effort.'
With a familiar face on the ISU bench, tonight's match meant a little more than any other. Second-year Cyclone head coach Christy Johnson used to serve as a UW assistant under Waite. Johnson led the Cyclones to just its second NCAA tournament appearance in the program's history.
'That Iowa State team is very scrappy and they really played with a lot of confidence,' Waite said. 'Give Christy Johnson and her staff a lot of credit with what they've done over the last two years and especially this year, taking their team to a really high level.'
In the match, the Badgers topped the Cyclones in every stat category but only by a small margin defensively. The UW hit .259 on the match and had 59 kills compared to ISU 's .187 hitting percentage and 41 kills. Four Badger players had double-figure kills led by Jeffers' match-high 14 kills. Reineke added 11 kills while freshman Brittney Dolgner and Senior Amy Bladow had 10 a piece. Senior Maria Carlini surpassed the 1,000-kill career mark with her nine on the evening.
For ISU, Katie Jessen and Erin Boeve both had 11 kills.
In assists, junior Jackie Simpson paced the Badger offense with 42 of her team 's 50 kills. ISU tallied 38 assists on the night with Kaylee Manns contributing 34 assists.
Wisconsin also had a dominating night from the service line as it aced the Cyclones seven times. Carlini and junior Jocelyn Wack had two aces each. ISU had three aces in the match with Jessen tallying two.
'It was one of our goals going into the game,' Waite said of the serving. 'We knew they had very strong middle attackers and if we served tough and kept them away from the net, they couldn't run their quick offense. And we did that right away and kept them on their heels and a good number of players had aces. That means that we were serving tough tonight. That's always your goal.'
With three players tallying double-digit digs, Iowa State finished with 52 on the night. The UW slightly edged the visitors and finished with 53, including a match high 16 from Wack.
Finally on the block, Wisconsin barely edged ISU and finished with a 10-9 advantage. Reineke and Bladow had five and four, respectively, while ISU's Jessica Klein had a match-high nine block assists.
The Badgers used strong serving in the first game to run away from the Cyclones. The team tallied four service aces in the frame. After trailing by six, the Cyclones climbed back in with two back-to-back blocks and a service ace to put the score at 16-14. The Badgers responded, using a four-point stretch to go up seven at 23-16. The UW maintained the lead to close out ISU in game one, 30-20.
In game two, Wisconsin used a six-point stretch early to go up on the Cyclones 9-3. ISU responded mid-game with a three-point run to pull within five at 20-15. The Cyclones then remained within three points down the stretch, including the 27-24 tally. Wisconsin held on though and used a game-high six kills from Reineke to close out game two, 30-25.
Not ready to give up the season, Iowa State stuck around in game three. The Cyclones took a two-point advantage early in the frame and hung around until a four-point run behind the service of Bladow put the Badgers up 19-12. ISU again climbed back into the game and used a four-point run of its own to play within two at 20-18. The Cyclones came within two points five more times down the stretch and held off match point four times before the Badgers knocked them out of game three, 30-27.
Tonight was the final home match in the Field House for the Badgers and the win marked the 12th home sweep of the season. Wisconsin will look to use that momentum in its match against Texas, who swept the Badgers on their home court in the first match of the 2006 season.
'It really does give our team extra energy and focus,' Waite said on his team's play in the Field House. 'They just want to do a great job for the fans and if anything starts sliding against us on our side of the net, the fans are giving us some energy right away and it just really helps our team. We love being here but it also gives us some confidence going on the road now.'
'I definitely think that there's a lot of extra motivation,' Simpson said of playing Texas. 'The very first time we came out and played them, first match of the season, all those jitters, just trying to get used to everyone. I think we're a lot different team now so I'd like to see the match-up again. '
Wisconsin will hit the court at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, in the Gregory Gymnasium in Austin, Texas.
