The No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers and No. 12 Minnesota Golden Gophers volleyball squads added another chapter to the schools' rivalry Wednesday night. The teams squared off in one of the most anticipated matches of the 2006 season, a battle for second place and bragging rights in the Big Ten.
Regrettably, the night did not end in the Badgers' favor.
Both teams came into the match with identical 13-3 records in the Big Ten, trailing only the 14-2 Nittany Lions of Penn State.
As expected, neither team pulled away from the other in the first game of the match. Freshman sensation Brittany Dolgner kept the Badgers in the hunt with seven kills alone. But in the end, the Gophers' senior duo of Meghan Cumpston and Meredith Nelson led the way with four kills each, and Minnesota took game one 30-26.
The Badgers never truly got their footing in game two. Playing the road warriors, Minnesota out-killed Wisconsin 19-13 and out-blocked Wisconsin five to one. The Gophers cruised to an easy 30-22 game-two win as both teams headed to their locker rooms.
Game three was a complete reversal, as the Badgers stormed out to a 10-6 lead. Minnesota kept it interesting momentarily, but Wisconsin never looked back and rolled to 30-18 victory. Dolgner made seven kills for the third game in a row, and junior libero Jocelyn Wack came through in the clutch with seven digs.
Game four returned to the game-one format as both teams remained neck-and-neck until the end. After falling behind 2-6, the Badgers surged ahead to a 12-10 lead. However, the feisty Gophers remained resilient as Minnesota's Nelson made seven more kills en route to a 30-25 game four, and, ultimately, a 3-1 match victory.
After the game, Badgers' coach Pete Waite commented on his team's loss.
In terms of Wisconsin's performance, he stated, ""Timing is everything, and [Minnesota] caught us at a time when we're not playing our best ball."" Waite, though, remained confident in his team's abilities and discussed what the program needs to accomplish as it approaches post-season play. He claimed, ""We've got to find as a team where we were, and it's the attitude and aggressiveness and confidence that we had.""
Now, the Badgers look to rebound in their next match Friday with the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Field House as they get closer to the NCAA tournament.
