The No. 21 Wisconsin volleyball team will head to Evanston, Ill., Wednesday to take on its travel partner Northwestern in a mid-week Big Ten clash. The game will be broadcast live from Welsh-Ryan Arena at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
Wisconsin (2-2 Big Ten, 11-4 overall) picked up its 300th win at the UW Field House Friday night after surging back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Michigan in five sets. With a Sunday sweep of Ohio State, the Badgers' .500 conference record situates them in a six-way tie for third place in the Big Ten.
We just played this weekend and I think we played really well,"" senior middle hitter Audra Jeffers said. ""We have a lot of momentum coming off this weekend, so we're hoping to just continue that into Wednesday.""
After setting a career high with 18 kills Friday night, Jeffers upped her average to 2.4 per set second best on the team.
""I think we approach [tonight's game] like we do any game,"" Jeffers said. ""Even though it's in the middle of the week rather than on a weekend, we still prepare the same way. Today we scouted against what Northwestern does. So you know every game is kind of the same with the way we approach this.""
Senior Morgan Salow also set a new career high in hitting percentage against Ohio State, hitting .611 with 13 kills on 18 attempts with just two errors. Salow hit a combined .625 in the Badgers' first two conference wins this season.
Northwestern (0-4 Big Ten, 6-9 overall) dropped a pair of home matches last weekend to Ohio State Friday night before being swept by No. 21 Michigan on Saturday.
The Wildcats rank third in the Big Ten with 14.43 overall team digs per set, but offensively the Wildcats are averaging a league-worst .201 overall attack average.
""[Northwestern] runs a really fast slide behind the setter. They got some athletes, their setter Elyse Glab is very quick,"" Waite said. ""[Senior] Chelsy Hyser's their middle, who is probably one of the fastest and highest hitting-percentage in the conference, so she's very dangerous. They've got a lot of great weapons.""
The trio of Hyser and sophomores Brittani Gray and Sabel Moffett all average over 2.6 kills per set for the Wildcats. Moffett leads NU with a .336 hitting percentage, eighth-best in the Big Ten. Junior Katie Nobilio ranks No. 22 in the nation in digs per set with 4.98.
To top the Wildcats, Waite believes strong serving will be a key to picking up the win.
""Number one, as always, serving tough is going to be important because if we can keep them away from the net, they can't run their fast offense as well,"" Waite said. ""Our passers are going to start our offense up, just like we did last week. We got our middles involved a lot and that really was difficult for the opponent to defend.""
Wisconsin leads the overall series 41-25, including an 18-10 record in Evanston. Its last loss to the Wildcats came in four sets at Northwestern in 2003.
The Badgers look forward to having their match televised on BTN and plan to extend the series lead against Northwestern.
""It's really exciting,"" Jeffers said. ""I love Big Ten matches. It's a great opportunity for family members to watch us play, especially extended family or friends that might get to see the game.
- Ben Breiner contributed to
this report.
