Back on the road after two weeks of matches at home, the Wisconsin volleyball team (6-8 Big Ten, 16-10 overall) finished the weekend with mixed results but failed to make up any ground in the conference race.
The Badgers defeated Ohio State (1-12, 10-15) in a 25-23, 13-25, 25-19, 26-24 rout but finished the weekend with a 25-18, 26-28, 26-28, 19-25 loss to Michigan (8-6, 20-6) in Ann Arbor Saturday night.
Wisconsin is stuck at sixth place in the Big Ten standings with just three weeks left to go in the season, and will have to play well down the homestretch to make the NCAA tournament in December.
The victory on Friday night was a big one, considering the Buckeyes accumulated more kills, assists, digs and blocks than the Badgers over the course of the match.
Ohio State sophomore outside hitter Katie Dull led all players on the night with 22 kills, but no other Buckeye was able to amass more than eight in the four sets.
On the other side of the net, junior outside hitter Brittney Dolgner had 16 kills while senior middle blocker Audra Jeffers threw down 11 of her own. The two players also accumulated eight blocks, while senior middle blocker Morgan Salow had six blocks of her own.
It does feel good to end that one in four because we had to battle for a couple [sets] there especially in the first game we were down and looking kind of flat,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said.
""[We] started going, had a little hiccup in game two and we went flat again, [had] kind of a bad start,"" Waite said. ""But even at the end here, we were ahead, they came back and we still hung in there and battled to the end. That's something we've wanted to see, we've been working on in practice and we got to see it tonight.""
Against Michigan, Wisconsin once again allowed its opponent to rack up more kills, assists and digs but yielded a different outcome to finish the game.
The Badgers came out strong in this match, hitting .250 to the Wolverines' .021 in the first set to take a lead in the match. In position to win another set, up 22-19 in the second, Michigan freshman right side hitter Alex Hunt tallied three kills to rally the Wolverines and tie the game at 23.
After a Michigan set point, a Badger set point, and two more Michigan set points a Wolverine block put the set away. The third set ended in a similar fashion, and paved the way for a rout in the fourth to take the match.
Despite the loss, a few Badgers still had a productive outing. Freshman outside hitter/setter Janelle Gabrielsen recorded the first triple-double for Wisconsin since 1988 with 13 kills, 15 assists and 10 digs. Her 13 kills were also a career high for Gabrielsen, who led the Badgers in hitting percentage with .429 on the night.
Senior defensive specialist Faye McCormack also had a career night, tallying 12 digs in four sets. But it was the trio of Hunt, senior middle blocker Beth Karpiak and junior outside hitter Juliana Paz who were the stars of the match, combining for 46 kills and seven blocks.
""It was a great match and very competitive,"" Waite said. ""We saw some great things out of our players and a lot of them finished with career-highs '¦ Faye McCormack came in and did a great job in the back row for us. Nellie Gabrielsen had a career night with a triple double and that's just fantastic. We're not happy with the results but we're pleased with the efforts and the progress we made.""
The Badgers' next round of conference opponents will be Minnesota Friday and Iowa Sunday, both of whom defeated Wisconsin in the first week of Big Ten play this season.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
