Against the two most difficult opponents on this season's schedule, the No. 13 Wisconsin volleyball team (4-2 Big Ten, 12-4 overall) suffered its first two conference losses against opponents No. 14 Ohio State (3-3, 13-3) and No. 2 Penn State (6-0, 17-0) on its weekend road tour.
In addition to coming home empty-handed after a road trip for the first time this season, the Badgers ended an eight game winning streak in the Big Ten and dropped two in a row for the first time since October of last year.
Friday night's match against the Buckeyes started off well for Wisconsin, but the Badgers fell apart and let Ohio State take over for a 28-30, 25-30, 30-27, 30-28, 15-12 victory. While both teams seemed to struggle early, the Badgers managed to win the first two and keep each of the last three games close until the very end. Ohio State outside hitter Briana McCarthy's .486 hitting percentage and middle blocker Danielle Meyer's 25 kills on 74 attempts proved to be too much for Wisconsin to handle. The Badgers were outdug 76 to 81 and could only manage a .198 hitting percentage as a team.
""Obviously it's a disappointing result of that match when we started up two games to nothing,"" Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. ""We started fading a little bit and they really started to pick up momentum in the third game. All the stats were pretty close across the board for both teams. I think they just took advantage of the home, the crowd and the energy that they had and they kept building on that as the match went on.""
The bout with Penn State on Saturday also ended in disappointment, as the Badgers fell to the Nittany Lions 30-24, 30-22, 30-27. With senior outside hitter Maria Carlini out for the night due to a foot injury, the Badgers seemed to have a difficult time getting any offensive momentum. In the first game alone, Penn State had eight blocks that denied every Wisconsin player of a positive hitting percentage except for freshman outside hitter Brittney Dolgner and junior middle blocker Taylor Reineke. The Badgers hit .189 as a team and only had six team blocks, compared to the 17.5 blocks the Nittany Lions chalked up for the night.
Despite the loss, the Badgers had one particular reason to be optimistic after their game against Penn State. In the absence of Carlini, freshman outside hitter Caity DuPont saw significant playing time in the match and showed why she was part of the fifth best recruiting class in the nation this year according to Volleyball magazine.
In just two games, DuPont got six kills on 12 attempts and had two service aces against the dominant Penn State defense. She also hit a team-high .417 and her eight points were second only to Dolgner's 17 for the night. DuPont led the Badgers on their best offensive run of the night in game three, throwing down two kills to give UW an 8-3 lead early on. All of DuPont's numbers were career highs for her.
The Badgers will return home next weekend to host No. 9 Purdue on Friday night and Indiana on Sunday afternoon. Both matches will be played at the UW Field House.
