After an exciting victory against No. 7 Illinois on Wednesday, No. 19 Wisconsin (2-2 Big Ten, 10-4 overall) stormed past Northwestern (2-2, 10-5) to win its 11th consecutive Big Ten match at home in three sets 25-20, 25- 16, 25-19.
“Attack errors are down a little bit more from where we’ve been this year,” UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “They’ve been a little bit higher this season than what we’d like them to be. I think we kept those under control a little bit. I think our blocking was an impact tonight. We got our hands on a lot of balls and we finished a lot of those blocks.”
Blocking was a huge factor in UW’s win as the Badgers out blocked the Wildcats 12-4.
The Badgers got ahead quickly as they jumped out to a 17-10 lead in the first set. Northwestern cut the lead to 23-19 but committed a costly attack error that allowed Wisconsin to take the first set.
In the second set, UW continued to dominate as six different Badgers recorded a kill before the first timeout to lead 13-9. Sophomore outside hitter Kelli Bates sparked a 4-0 run with a service ace to extend the Badgers’ lead to 17-10. Excellent blocking eventually led to UW winning the second set.
“I think our defense was also in the right spot, and a lot of that I credit to our blockers up in the front row,” Bates said of the Badgers’ presence at the net. “They line themselves up well and it makes it really easy on the backcourt, to be able to read where they were going to go.”
Junior middle blocker Haleigh Nelson had a kill to lead Wisconsin on a 6-0 run and put the Badgers up 8-3 in the third set. They then stretched that advantage to 14-7 due in part to attack errors from Northwestern. The Wildcats rallied to cut UW’s lead to 22-18 before the Badgers closed it out to win the match.
Junior setter Lauren Carlini led both teams with 32 assists and had a service ace, three kills and seven digs.
The Badgers had .246 hitting percentage for the game while Northwestern finished with a .136 hitting percentage. Bates had 12 kills, redshirt junior outside hitter Romana Kriskova recorded nine kills and freshman middle blocker Tionna Williams and sophomore outside hitter Lauryn Gillis each added six kills.
The Badgers hope to win their third consecutive conference game this season as they will face Rutgers Friday at 6 p.m. in Brunswick, New Jersey.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
