Thriller Night: Spartans spook Badgers in five
October 31, 2008 | Volleyball
The Halloween magic wasn't on the No. 25 Wisconsin volleyball team's side Friday night at the UW Field House. Despite a fourth set comeback, the Badgers fell 26-24 23-25, 27-25, 21-25, 15-7 to Michigan State in front of 3,329 fans. Wisconsin drops to 15-9 overall, 5-7 in the Big Ten Conference while MSU improves to 11-11, 4-7.
'I think there were just too many errors on our side of the net tonight, ' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'I think in the fourth (set) we made a good comeback, we just got down big. We just had some (errors at) critical times, whether it was service errors, hitting errors, net faults ' they're all points for the other team in rally scoring. It just gave them enough momentum to make some moves on us.'
Junior Brittney Dolgner led the Badgers with 18 of the team's 68 kills. Junior Caity DuPont also tallied 12 kills on the night. Senior Audra Jeffers chipped in 11 kills while sophomore Allison Wack had nine kills and hit .333. Wisconsin hit .168 as a team while MSU hit .171 on the night. The Spartans were led by 20 kills from Kyndra Abron and Vanessa King chipped in 14 kills. King hit a team-best .379.
Sophomore setter Nikki Klingsporn tied her career high with 47 assists. Freshman Janelle Gabrielsen finished with 12 assists as the Badgers had 64 assists compared to 56 for the Spartans. Natalie Emro paced the MSU offense with 48 assists.
Defensively, the Spartans had the edge on digs and blocks. MSU out-dug the UW 84-82 and were led by 23 saves from Allyson Karaba. Sophomore libero Kim Kuzma led the way for Wisconsin with 22 digs while Dolgner tallied a career-high 20 digs. Klingsporn and Gabrielsen each added 12 digs. Gabrielsen was just two kills away from recording a triple double.
Michigan State also out-blocked the Badgers, 16-12. Jeffers led Wisconsin with six stuffs while Gabrielsen chipped in four blocks. King led Michigan State with eight blocks.
The Badgers struggled from the service line, recording just one ace and nine service errors. Wack had the lone Badger ace of the night. MSU finished with six aces and six errors.
'Sometimes we're trying too hard to knock the team over on the serve instead of putting it in and making them play the ball,' Waite said. 'Some (errors) are mental. We're training the same way always have, it 's a matter of when we're going to grab it and run with a low error game. '
The Badgers led 9-4 early in the first set, but the Spartans went on a 6-1 rally, tying the score at 10. The period was tied eight more times, including at 23-23 as neither team led by more than two points. A kill from King gave State its first set point at 24-23 but Dolgner came through with a kill to knot the score for the 10th time in the period. King had another kill to give the Spartans their second set point before a serve from Karaba hit the net and fell in to give MSU the win.
Wisconsin controlled most of the second set, leading by as many as three points (11-8 and 15-12) but the set also featured nine ties. UW led 23-21off a block from Dolgner and Ohlander but two Spartan kills knotted the score at 23. Dolgner hammered the ball off the State blockers and out of bounds, giving the Badgers set point. DuPont, who came off the bench in the second set, scored the set point on one of her three kills in the period.
Set three was another battle with 15 ties. UW led 12-8, scoring four straight behind two kills from Ohlander. The Spartans rallied to score six straight, taking a 14-12 lead. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the set. The Badgers served for set point at 25-24 but a kill from Emro tied the set once again. A service ace and block from the Spartans gave them the third set 27-25.
UW rallied back from four-point deficit (18-14) in the fourth set to win the period and send the match into the decisive fifth set. The Badgers scored four straight points, including two off kills from Gabrielsen, to tie the period at 18. The Spartans led 20-18 but a Dolgner kill knotted the score at 20. Gabrielsen, who had five kills in the set, scored on two more kills to put Wisconsin up 23-20. State scored one point but a Spartan service error and a kill from Dolgner gave the Badgers the set, 25-21.
The Spartans took a 7-4 lead in the fifth set, recording two early blocks. DuPont had two kills to pull the UW within one (7-6) but Michigan State rattled off four straight points and never looked back in the 15-7 match-winner.
Wisconsin has the rest of the weekend off before it hits the road again next weekend. Wisconsin heads to Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 7 for a match against Ohio State and then to Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 8 to face Michigan.
'It hurts to lose a close one like this, but I really thought this week during practice the team was starting to come around,' Jeffers said. 'We have to take the good things out of this match and move forward and keep our heads up. '
