Badgers Fall to Cyclones
December 01, 2007 | Volleyball
The eighth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team was stunned by unranked Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Cyclones (19-13) upset the Badgers 30-28, 30-25, 30-24 to advance to the NCAA regional next weekend in the UW Field House. Wisconsin ends its season 26-5, losing in the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2003 and for the first time at home since 2002.
'This is certainly not a position we expected to be in, but give Iowa State credit,' said UW coach Pete Waite. 'They played really well tonight. This is one match, but this group (of Wisconsin players) had a very good season. I want them to be proud of that and the fans for what they did. Especially on a night like this with the snowstorm, they came out and supported us.'
Wisconsin struggled on the court, recording a season-low hitting percentage of .128 while Iowa State hit .211. The Badgers were led by Caity DuPont with 11 kills and Brittney Dolgner with 10 kills as the UW finished with a 48-47 advantage in kills.
'It's very uncharacteristic of us to have a hitting percentage like that over the course of a match and to be off our game at an important time like this, ' said Waite. 'They served tough and we were unable to stay in a system with our offense and they played some very good defense. It was close on the digs, but I think they made some critical ones on some big hits we had.'
Iowa State finished with the advantage in service aces (6-5), digs (69-49) and blocks (12-10). Cyclone libero Ashley Mass, a Muskego, Wis., native finished with a match-high 21 digs while Jen Malcom had seven block assists to lead ISU.
Iowa State's opposite hitter Lauren Cummings led all players with 14 kills and middle blocker Erin Boeve contributed 11 kills and hit .688 on the night. Boeve also had four blocks, including two solos.
Wisconsin was led by Jocelyn Wack with 15 digs and Taylor Reineke with seven block assists. Jackie Simpson added four blocks and shared team-high honors with two service aces. Simpson put up 42 assists, running the Badger offense.
This was Iowa State's third-straight win over a ranked opponent and Wisconsin was the highest-ranked opponent that the Cyclones have upset in program history. ISU beat No. 21 Oklahoma 3-1 on Nov. 24 and No. 16 San Diego 3-2 Friday night in the first round of the tournament.
Despite being behind 19-11 in game one, Iowa State rallied back to tie the game at 23-23. The Cyclones faced game point off a disputed call for four hits on Wisconsin. A kill from Victoria Henson gave ISU the first game win. Cummings and Reineke were the leading hitters with six kills each.
'It's hard to pinpoint one thing (that went wrong in game one) without going back and looking at tape and seeing what it was,' commented Waite. '(Iowa State) just chipped away at it and they just got two (points) every time we got one (point) and they kept coming back, bit by bit.
'I think they started to feel the same thing they felt last night when they made the comeback and that's a team that can do that. We generally are a team that does that too; comes back from deficits like that. Sometimes you can just catch fire and things get going and they played with a lot of confidence.'
Once the Cyclones took the lead at 10-9 in game two, they began to build their lead, one that they never gave up. The Badgers were never able to score two consecutive points after that as they dropped the second meeting. Cummings again led ISU with her five kills. Katherine Dykstra was Wisconsin's leading hitter with four kills but only managed a .077 hitting percentage.
The Badgers found themselves owning an early lead in game three at 5-2, but Iowa State rallied once again to tie the game at 5-5. The Cyclones later went on a four-point run to pull ahead 20-14 over UW. One of Boeve's five kills set up match point for ISU before a kill from Audra Jeffers gave Wisconsin the serve. Malcom's match-winning kill was her only kill in game three, but it came at the most important time as it completed the sweep over Wisconsin.
Iowa State returns to Madison to face California next Friday at 5 p.m. in the NCAA Regionals. Michigan State will play No. 2 Nebraska in the second match at 7 p.m. Semifinal winners will play at 8 p.m. on Saturday, live on ESPNU, for the right to advance to the NCAA championship on Dec. 13 and 15 in Sacramento, Calif.
