The No. 23 Wisconsin Badgers' (10-3 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) volleyball team escaped early deficits in both matches this weekend to come up with wins against the Northwestern Wildcats (9-5 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) Friday and the Illinois Fighting Illini (10-2 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) Saturday.
Friday's match against the Wildcats saw the Badgers win 27-30, 27-30, 30-25, 30-15, 15-12. Wisconsin hurt itself in the first two games of the match, committing 15 of its 20 total service errors in those games. However, a fired up Badger team and a switch of senior Lisa Zukowski from libero to outside hitter after the first two led the Badgers to sweep the final three games of the match for the win.
Sophomore outside hitter Aubrey Meierotto set career highs in kills with 24 and blocks with six while leading the team in each category for the match. Also pacing Wisconsin offensively were senior outside hitter Jill Odenthal with 13 kills, sophomore middle blocker Sheila Shaw with 11 and Zukowski with nine. Zukowski also led the team in digs with 14, while junior outside hitter Marian Weidner had 11 and senior setter Morgan Shields had 10.
In the loss, Northwestern senior outside hitter Iwona Lodzik had a stellar game, tallying 22 kills and 23 digs for the match. Senior middle blocker Erika Lange had 13 kills, and sophomore outside hitter Christine Gardner had quite the game of her own with 11 kills and 12 digs.
The Badgers also fell behind early in Saturday's match against the Illini, but they regrouped quickly, winning the match by a score of 28-30, 30-27, 30-22, 30-23. The Badgers continued to hurt themselves much like Friday night by committing 11 service errors to Illinois' five and 33 attacking errors to their opponent's 22. The Badgers did, however, register 77 kills as compared to only 47 for Illinois.
Odenthal had a great night by leading the Badgers with 22 kills and a career high six service aces. Weidner had a career high in digs with 11, while senior libero Jill Maier tied her career high with 19 digs. Also tallying double digits in kills for the Badgers were Meierotto, Shaw and Zukowski with 14 apiece. Zukowski also had another double-double, registering 15 digs.
For the Illini, senior middle blocker Lisa Argabright paced the team with 17 kills over only two errors and a match-high five blocks while senior outside hitter Melissa Vandrey added 11. Junior libero Lauren Harks led the team with 12 digs.
The undefeated Badgers squad travels to Michigan for two matches next weekend. They will play the Michigan State Spartans Friday in East Lansing and the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Both games start at 6 p.m.
