In the lone Big Ten matchup of the night, the No. 9 Wisconsin volleyball team (15-3 Big Ten, 23-4 overall) marched into Columbus on Monday and soundly swept Ohio State (7-11, 13-14) 30-21, 30-19, 30-14 on its home court. The win marked Wisconsin's first sweep in four matches and finished its conference road season with a 9-1 record.
It was a great final Big Ten road win,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said. ""We're ready to come back home and finish up the Big Ten season.""
The match was one-sided nearly the entire night. The Badgers never trailed in the first game and were led by sophomore outside hitter Caity DuPont, who tallied a service ace early on in the set and three kills in the team's last 10 points to seal a victory.
The Buckeyes managed to improve on the .024 they hit in the first game and jumped out to an early 5-3 lead in the second. But the impressive play of sophomore opposite hitter Katherine Dykstra reversed the Badgers' fortunes and sent them back into the lead.
Dykstra tallied five of her 11 kills on the night in the second game and assisted on a block with senior middle blocker Taylor Reineke to ignite the breakaway that put Wisconsin up 24-11 at one point.
Sophomore outside hitter Brittney Dolgner also had a major impact on the second set, posting six of her match-high 12 kills in that round.
Wisconsin wrapped up the night in the third game hitting .455 as a team as opposed to the .000 effort from Ohio State, who suffered from the potent defensive assault from the Badgers.
Wisconsin finished the night with 12 blocks and 41 digs and held Ohio State's leading scorer, senior middle blocker Danielle Meyer, to .080 hitting for the night.
""Our serving was tough; we kept them out of their offense,"" Waite said. ""Our passing was solid and it let us stay in the flow of things. Anytime you can keep a great player like Danielle Meyer down as far as her kills and hitting percentage, it's a good night for us.""
On top of Wisconsin's leader board for the night was Dolgner with 12 kills on 26 attempts and a match-high 11 digs.
Dykstra and DuPont each made their presence known on the court as well, posting 11 kills each. Dykstra also posted impressive defensive statistics on the night, accounting for four of the team's 12 blocks and getting a piece of seven stuffs during the course of the match.
The team also put together an admirable serving performance, hitting four aces and only committing one error.
""I was really pleased with our overall performance tonight,"" Waite said. ""[Senior setter] Jackie [Simpson] was very on offensively and spreading the ball out to our hitters and we saw some great numbers by DuPont, Dolgner and Dykstra.""
The Badgers will return home this week to prepare for their final two matches of the regular season against Iowa (1-17, 9-20) Friday and third place Minnesota (10-8, 17-11) Saturday. First serve for each match will be at 7 p.m. in the UW Field House.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
