Aug. 21, 2010

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MADISON, Wis. -- Led by a match-high 12 kills from freshman Elise Walch, the White squad beat the Cardinal squad 2-1 in the Wisconsin volleyball intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday in the UW Field House. The White team won 25-18, 25-17, 20-25.

“We clearly saw Elise Walch dominate the match with her hitting and a high hitting percentage, the other team had a really hard time stopping her,” said UW coach Pete Waite. “Overall, it was a very young group we started with. We had four freshmen starters out there on the team. It was great for them to get used to the crowd and all of our fans.”

Walch, a 6-5 outside hitter, connected on 41.7 percent of her attacks and also added two block assists. Sophomore Alexis Mitchell led the White team at 44.4 percent, putting down five kills on nine attempts with one error.

“Elise really stood out offensively but the rest were really balanced scoring,” explained Waite. “(Janelle Gabrielsen) was really spreading the balls out to a lot of hitters and that’s very hard for a defense to stop.”

On the White squad, senior Allison Wack and freshman Julie Mikaelsen both put down six kills while freshman Dominique Thompson added five kills. Gabrielsen put up 34 assists as the White team put away 35 kills and hit .256.

On the Cardinal team, sophomore Kirby Toon led all hitters with 10 kills while sophomore Mary Ording added nine putaways. Bailey Reshel added seven kills while setter Jessa Benson chipped in six kills and put up 26 assists. The Cardinals put away 37 kills and hit .247.

“On the Cardinal team, Bailey Reshel did a really great job on the outside with her hitting percentage,” said Waite of the transfer who hit .375.

Sophomore Kelli Kasha led all players with 10 digs for the Cardinal squad while senior Kim Kuzma led the White team with nine digs.

The White squad outblocked the Cardinal team 5-4 with Walch, Mitchell, Mikaelsen and Thompson all chipping in two block assists.

Mitchell also led all players with two service aces.

“For a start, it was great,” said Waite. “We got a lot of things taken care of. We’ll be able to work on some things, watch tape a little bit and show the players things to work on before we start play next weekend at William & Mary.”

Wisconsin opens its regular season on Friday and Saturday at the Tribe Invitational in Williamsburg, Va.

“This week we can focus on ourselves a little bit but then we have to start focusing on Winthrop, our first opponent,” explains Waite. “When we get out there, we’ll have a chance to watch the other teams before we play them.”