Wildcats swept out of the Field House
October 29, 2008 | Volleyball
The losing streak for the 25th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team came to an end in a resounding way on Wednesday night. The Badgers started off the second half of the Big Ten Conference season by sweeping Northwestern 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 in front of 3,069 fans at the UW Field House. Wisconsin improves to 15-8 overall, 5-6 in the Big Ten while Northwestern drops to 7-15 overall, 1-10 in the conference.
'I'm happy with the win,' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'Just looking at the stats, I think we did a nice job keeping their hitters down a little bit. (Their) hitting percentage as a team was down and it wasn't just because of our blocking, I think that was okay, but I think our defense was pretty solid and our passing was much better tonight. Nikki (Klingsporn) was able to set some nice balls and keep the hitters in tempo. I was pleased with the effort.'
The Badgers had a strong attack tonight and were led by junior Brittney Dolgner 's 11 kills. Freshman Elle Ohlander had a standout night with nine kills and hit .412 in the match. As a team, Wisconsin had 45 kills compared to 34 for NU and hit .274. This was Wisconsin's best hitting percentage since hitting .345 against Ohio State on Oct. 5. Northwestern's Brittani Gray led the team with 11 kills and the Wildcats hit .119 on the night.
The Badgers went with a 5-1 offense tonight with Klingsporn starting at setter. The sophomore tallied 34 of the team's 43 assists. Northwestern recorded 33 assists and were led by 21 from Elyse Glab.
Defensively, the Badgers out-dug the Wildcats but NU finished with more blocks. Wisconsin had 39 saves on the night compared to 33 for Northwestern. Sophomore Kim Kuzma led all players with 15 digs. Dolgner added eight saves while sophomore Allison Wack contributed seven digs. Kate Nobilio led NU with 13 digs.
Northwestern outblocked Wisconsin, 9-6 and were led by six stuffs from Sabel Moffett. For the Badgers, Ohlander recorded four blocks, including one solo.
The Badgers served well tonight, finishing with six aces. This was the most service aces since recording seven aces against Ohio State. Dolgner tallied a match high three aces while Kuzma contributed two. NU finished with five aces and three service errors.
Wisconsin led by as many as four points twice in the first set, but Northwestern would battle to make it a contest. The Badgers led 10-6 and 15-11 off a block and kill from Ohlander but the Wildcats took advantage of two UW hitting errors to tie the set at 19. Ohlander added another kill and teamed with Katherine Dykstra on a block to put Wisconsin up 23-20. Two back-to-back Northwestern errors gave the Badgers the first set 25-20.
The second set was tied six times, including at 16-16, before UW scored five-straight to take a 21-16 lead. Three unforced hitting errors by the Wildcats aided the Badger run. Caity DuPont came off the bench late in the second period, scoring two kills as Wisconsin went up two sets to none, winning 25-19.
The Badgers took control of the third set from the service line, scoring four aces in the period. Two aces from Dolgner put Wisconsin up 9-5 while Kuzma followed up with two aces of her own, giving Wisconsin a 12-6 lead. Wisconsin was two points away from taking the match at 23-15 but a five-point rally by NU put the Badgers on their heels and Northwestern within three. The Badgers were able to close out the match though with kills from senior Audra Jeffers and Wack to close out the sweep, 25-21.
'It's not a lot of fun,' Waite said of his team's four-match losing streak. 'You have to battle. You have to find ways to get people on track, to get the right mentality, just to get the right work ethic out there on a consistent basis. That's what we've been searching for so I think tonight was a good start.'
Wisconsin returns to action Friday for a Halloween match-up against Michigan State at the UW Field House. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. and anyone wearing a Halloween costume will receive FREE admission into the match.
