Sept. 23, 2011
Box Score | Quotes | Box Score 
Wisconsin 3, Northwestern 0
UW Field House • Madison, Wis. | |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Northwestern
| 20 | 21 | 22 | -- | -- | Wisconsin
| 25 | 25 | 25 | -- | -- | | | | Stats Leaders
| | NU | | WIS | | Holthus - 11 | Kills | Mitchell - 11 | | Shalter - 30 | Assists | Thomas - 20 | | Shalter - .750 | Hit %
| Mitchell - .450 | | Chin - 15 | Digs | Hickey - 15 | | Dutchman - 4 | Blocks | Thompson - 5 | | Ayers - 2 | Aces | Gabrielsen - 2 | | Stats Comparison
| NU | WIS | | Kills | 39 | 43 | | Hitting Pct. | .133 | .250 | | Assists | 36 | 39 | | Service Aces | 5 | 3 | | Digs | 41 | 50 | | Total Blocks | 7 | 9 | | |
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MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin volleyball team did something it hadn't done in four years on Friday night at the UW Field House - win a Big Ten Conference opener.
The Badgers did so behind a dominant effort on both sides of the ball, sweeping Northwestern 25-23, 25-21, 25-22. Wisconsin moves to 9-4 overall and 1-0 in Big Ten play, while the Wildcats fall to 9-3 and 0-1.
| Fast Facts | | • Badgers open Big Ten season with win | | • UW outblocks Northwestern 9-7 | | • Mitchell leads UW with 11 kills | |
Junior Alexis Mitchell led the Badgers with 11 kills and a .450 attack percentage (11 kills - 2 errors - 20 attempts). Northwestern's Stephanie Holthus also finished with 11 kills. Seven UW players recorded four or more kills.
Wisconsin hit .250 (43-16-108) as a team while keeping Northwestern to only .133 (39-23-120). The Badger defense outblocked Northwestern 9-7 and outdug the Wildcats 50-41.
Sophomore Dominique Thompson led all players with five blocks, while Mitchell chipped in four stuffs of her own.
Sophomore Annemarie Hickey had a team-high 14 digs to keep her double-digit dig streak going, while freshman Caroline Workman finished with a career-high 11 saves. Fellow freshman Courtney Thomas had her sixth double-double of the season with 20 assists and 10 digs.
"I'm really pleased with the way we played," said head coach Pete Waite. "That Northwestern team has some good talent on it and I think even though we wavered at times, we held strong and pulled through in each of the situations.
"Overall it was a nice team effort."
Mitchell agreed.
"We knew Northwestern was a good team, they had some really good hitters, but we definitely stuck to our game plan," she said. "We played hard and we played with a lot of intensity. It was really exciting and a really good atmosphere to play in."
Wisconsin opened the match, scoring the first three points. The Badgers later used a 5-0 run to go up 12-5 in the first set before Northwestern rallied to cut UW's lead to 12-11. Although Wisconsin hit a set-high .353 (17-5-34) as a team in the opening frame, the Badgers committed only two fewer errors than the Wildcats, which helped NU keep it close for most of the set. After two tie scores, Northwestern took the lead late in the set at 23-22 but the Badgers then closed the set the same way they opened it--with three straight points--to win.
Waite says he's happy with how his team stayed focused during the final points of the first set when it lost the lead for the first time in the match.
"I think they're really developing a great attitude of scrambling and battling for every play and staying composed," he said. "That's the biggest thing.
"If you can be composed and know that you can trust your teammates and score on the next point, you're going to be in the game with anybody."
The second set featured seven tie scores and two lead changes. The first of the lead changes came during a 5-0 Northwestern run that forced a Wisconsin timeout with the Wildcats leading 12-9. A kill from junior Bailey Reshel stopped the run and cut the Wildcats' lead to two (10-12). The Badgers used another run of five straight points to take the lead away for good at 19-16. NU was able to cut the lead to one (20-19) but UW scored five of the next seven points to pull out the win.
The third set went a similar way with five tie scores and two lead changes, including at 18-18. Wisconsin used a 3-0 run to take a 21-18 lead and had to play for match points three times before securing the win off a Mitchell kill from Thomas.
"I've been working on my timing with the setters a lot and it really pulled off tonight," she said. "I was able to be one-on-one with Northwestern's block a lot of the time so it really made it easy for me.
"It was a lot of fun."
Wisconsin returns to the court on Sunday to take on undefeated and No. 3 Illinois at 1 p.m. at the UW Field House.
