Indiana University Athletics
Indiana University
Wisconsin
#8 Wisconsin Squeezes by Hoosiers in Game Five
10/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 26, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana University volleyball team brought the #8 Wisconsin Badgers to the brink of defeat, before dropping a dramatic five-game match (23-30, 20-30, 31-29, 30-28, 16-14). Junior Erica Short played a big role in the Hoosier comeback from an 0-2 deficit, racking up 23 kills while hitting .375 for the night.
"I'm glad that she (Erica) bounced back tonight, stayed positive and stayed aggressive," said Head Coach Sherry Dunbar. "I am proud of her for doing those things."
Wisconsin (18-2, 10-1 Big Ten) began to pull away at the 11-11 mark in game one, slowly increasing their lead en route to a 30-23 victory. The Badgers offense was impressive in game two, hitting .645 in the 30-20 win. Short began to heat up in the second stanza, however, connecting on seven kills on eight swings with no errors for a .875 hitting efficiency.
The Hoosiers not only picked up the offense in game three, but came alive defensively as well, holding Wisconsin to a .191 hitting percentage. Despite trailing for the majority of the third game, IU clawed their way back to a 24-24 tie. Indiana's 24th point was the first of four consecutive for the Hoosiers as they grabbed a 27-24 advantage. Just as you would expect from an 18-2 team, Wisconsin responded, however, by evening the score once again at 28-28. The next two points after an IU timeout were split for yet another tie at 29-29, the 10th tie score of the game. The stalemate was broken by Short's kill for the match point. Freshman Mara Hilgenberg then stepped to the service line and did not disappoint, firing a game-winning service ace.
Senior Lauren Ditteon and Sophomore Kelsey Hall each recorded five kills in game four while Hilgenberg set up 14 assists. Wisconsin still had the lead for most of the game though. Just as they had done in game three, the Cream and Crimson started to surge late in the game after a stretch in which they took five of six points for the 28-26 edge. Moments later, Hall delivered the knockout punch with a kill for the 30-28 triumph, forcing a game five.
Both teams continued to battle it out intensely in game five, but IU was able to construct an 8-7 lead as the teams switched sides of the court. After swapping the next few points back and forth, a block by Hall and Freshman Ashley Benson combined with another Hall kill handed Indiana two match point opportunities with a 14-12 lead. Unfortunately, the Badgers found a way to get the next four points and win the match-clincher, 16-14.
"It's a good step, another good step for us," said Dunbar. "I proud of them because I don't think we had been playing very well lately. I'm proud of them for showing up tonight with that intensity and that energy that they had, and for competing. They could have just dropped after being down 0-2. For them to come back and fight that hard, it shows a lot of character about this team."
The Hoosiers return to action Saturday night as they host the Fighting Illini of Illinois for a 7 p.m. EDT showdown. The match will be held at University Gym.
"I think we know Illinois as good as we know any other team in the conference," said Dunbar. "We did a lot of film work on them, played hard against them, picked up the win at their place. We are going to have to maintain the intensity that we had tonight. We need to come out with that anger that we didn't win tonight, and take it out on Illinois just like we did the Penn State-Ohio State weekend (IU lost to Penn State Friday night before defeating Ohio State Saturday night)."
Players Mentioned
