Badgers bounce Buckeyes in four
November 07, 2008 | Volleyball
Despite being edged in nearly every statistical category, the Wisconsin volleyball team won at Ohio State 3-1 on Friday night. The Badgers held off a late rally from the Buckeyes to win 25-23, 13-25, 25-19, 26-24, improving to 16-9 overall, 6-7 in the Big Ten Conference. OSU drops to 10-15, 1-12.
'It does feel good to end that one in four because we had to battle for a couple (sets) there especially in the first game we were down and looking kind of flat, ' UW head coach Pete Waite said. 'We took a time out and coach (Brian) Heffernan stepped in there and gave them some incentive to play at a higher level basically and it worked. They started going, had a little hiccup in game two and we went flat again, (had) kind of a bad start. But even at the end here, we were ahead, they came back and we still hung in there and battled to the end. That's something we've wanted to see, we've been working on in practice and we got to see it tonight. '
Ohio State edged Wisconsin 52-50 in kills, hit .199 compared to .177 for the Badgers, out-dug Wisconsin 56 -52 and out-blocked the UW 14-12.
Brittney Dolgner led Wisconsin with 16 kills while Caity DuPont and Audra Jeffers added 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Jeffers led the Badgers at .357. Nikki Klingsporn put up 26 assists while Janelle Gabrielsen added 16 assists.
Katie Dull led all players with 22 kills as the only OSU player in double digits.
Morgan Salow, who played only three sets, led Wisconsin with a career-high six blocks while Dolgner added seven blocks, including two solos.
Kim Kuzma was the only Badger in double-digit digs with 13. The Buckeye's Chelsea Noble led all players with 15 digs.
Both teams recorded four aces as Kuzma led the UW with two.
'I think Kuzma came up with some big digs in the left back, out of their back row attack and we made some changes,' Waite said. 'We had Audra Jeffers on the right (side) for a little bit, switching in with Morgan Salow and Audie came in with some big kills. I think she did a great job and a great hitting percentage with 11 kills and one error.
"They battled. They got away from being passive and making the errors, which is what we have been doing sometimes and they stayed more aggressive and fought until the end. '
Wisconsin fell behind 5-1 in the first set and trailed for much of the period before rallying to take the first. The Badgers trailed 20-15, off a kill from Kristen Dozier, but two kills from Dolgner keyed a 6-2 run to tie the period at 22. A service ace from Gabrielsen followed by kills from Jeffers and DuPont gave UW the set.
The Badgers couldn't stop the Buckeyes offensively in the second set, as Ohio State hit .522 for the period to win 25-13. OSU jumped out to a 4-0 lead off two service aces from Sarah Mignin and UW couldn't recover. Ohio State had 13 kills on 23 attempts with only one error for the period while Wisconsin hit only .074 (9-7-27).
'This is a team, who right now, we're battling to get into the NCAA tournament and we've got our backs against the wall and that's what I told them in the locker room (after the second set),' Waite said. 'We can 't just sit there and think another team is going to make errors. (OSU) has one win in the Big Ten, but I tell you, that's a good team. There's no doubt that's a good team. And they're fighting with everything they have. I think when we got more aggressive later in the match, they started making some errors and that helped us a little bit.'
UW came out strong after the intermission to win the third set. The Badgers broke at 10-10 tie, scoring two straight to take a 12-10 lead. The Buckeyes hit only .053 in the third set as Wisconsin had five blocks in the period. UW hit .156 for the set and was near perfect from the service line with one ace and no errors.
Ohio State rallied late in the fourth set to nearly send it to a fifth set but Wisconsin recorded two late blocks to tie the set. The Badgers led 20-16 before the Buckeyes came back to tie the set at 20, off two UW hitting errors. OSU served for set point at 24-22 but two back-to-back UW blocks knotted the period again. Two Buckeye attack errors gave Wisconsin the win.
The Badgers have a chance to even up their Big Ten record when they play at No. 20 Michigan on Saturday night. First serve is at 5 p.m. and the match will be shown live on the Big Ten Network.
