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Blown away: Cyclones shock Badgers
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Also by Greg Schmitz:
- Blown away: Cyclones shock Badgers (December 3, 2007)
- Super Seniors (November 29, 2007)
- Badgers draw comparisons to 2000 finalist squad (November 27, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Home not sweet for Iowa State's Johnson (December 4, 2006)
- Wisconsin looks to bounce back after 3 straight road losses (December 3, 2004)
- Careers over for storied senior class (December 3, 2007)
- UW snags berth in NCAA tourney (May 5, 2005)
by Greg Schmitz
Monday, December 3, 2007
The No. 8 Wisconsin volleyball team (26-5) picked a bad time
to get swept for the first time this season.
After sweeping Iowa State (19-13) last year in the second
round of the NCAA Tournament, the Cyclones returned the favor this year,
bouncing the Badgers from the tournament with a 30-28, 30-25, 30-24 win and
advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history and earn a return
trip to Madison — the regional site — next weekend.
"This is certainly not a position we expected to be in,"
head coach Pete Waite said after the match. "Give Iowa State credit. They
played really well tonight."
"We're speechless," Iowa State senior Erin Boeve said of the
win. "I can't describe the feeling right now. It's overwhelming. We're really
excited and just looking forward to coming back here and playing, as we have
gotten real good feel for playing here."
The Badgers came out swinging to start the match and
appeared to be on their way to another sweep of the Cyclones. However, after
Wisconsin built its biggest lead of the night at 19-11, Iowa State, behind the
play of senior Lauren Cummings' six kills in the game, came storming back and
shocked the Badgers and their fans with a Game 1 win.
"We have a lot of momentum going for us," Iowa State head
coach Christy Johnson said. "We've been playing great ball the last couple of
weeks. We've been really good under pressure. We've been really good at coming
back in matches, whether it's down 10 points or down games."
From there on, Iowa State controlled the rest of the match
as Wisconsin only had a lead for 18 of the remaining 109 points.
"We knew that [Iowa State was] a strong team, that they were
fighters," senior setter Jackie Simpson said. "We were ready for them to be
bringing momentum swings like that and they just caught fire. It was a night
where they were really on and we just weren't. It's unfortunate."
Iowa State used a strong service game to keep Wisconsin out
of its offense all night, leading to a season-low .128 hitting percentage for
the Badgers. The Cyclones finished the match with a 6-5 service ace edge, but
only had three service errors compared to the Badgers five.
"It's very uncharacteristic of us to have a hitting
percentage like that over the course of a match and be off our game in an
important time like this," Waite said. "I thought they served tough and we
weren't able to stay in system with our offense."
The Cyclones also out-dug the Badgers 52-49. Wisconsin
native Ashley Mass led all players with 21 digs. In her final match, senior
libero Jocelyn Wack finished with 15 digs on the night to move her school
career-record to 2,182.
"[Iowa State] played some very good defense," Waite said.
"It was close on the digs, but they made some critical ones on some big hits we
had."
Iowa State and Wisconsin set up the rematch from last year
by winning their respective opening round matches in different fashion.
Wisconsin dominated, sweeping Northern Iowa 30-23, 30-21,
30-24 Friday night.
"I thought that was a good start to the tournament for us,"
Waite said after Friday night's match. "Northern Iowa is a scrappy team and a
team we saw earlier this year. They have improved a lot since that time."
The Badgers dominated in every statistical category on the
night. Wisconsin had a 56-45 edge in kills as Dolgner led all players with 20,
including 11 in the third game alone. Reineke also reached double digits with
10 kills as Wisconsin hit .355 on the night.
"We all just really stepped up," Dolgner said. "It just
happened that certain rotations the ball just needed to go to the outside, and
Jackie did really good job setting those balls."
After resting for a week with a foot injury, junior middle
blocker Audra Jeffers was back in the lineup and contributed with eight kills
for a .500 hitting percentage. She also chipped in with two solo blocks.
"It felt great to be out there," Jeffers said. "I thought
Morgan (Salow) did a great job last weekend coming in and playing. I was just
happy to be out there again playing with the team."
Wisconsin also out-blocked Northern Iowa 5-2. While the five
blocks are low for Wisconsin standards, Waite credited his team's block for
forcing the Panthers to hit to Wack, who led all players with 25 digs — the
second highest in Badger history for a three-game match.
"One sign of a good block is not necessarily getting the
block," Waite said. "The fact that Jo got 25 digs means it probably was
channeled well to her and she had a good view of the hitter."
Iowa State set up the rematch by coming from behind to beat
No. 16 San Diego 25-30, 31-29, 30-19, 24-30, 16-14.
"That was a great match with two great teams going at it
with neither one letting go," Johnson said.
With the pair of wins on the weekend, Iowa State will return
to Madison next weekend to take on California at 5 p.m. in the first regional
semifinal. The second regional semifinal will take place at 7 p.m., as No. 2
Nebraska will face Michigan State in what will be former Badger head coach John
Cook's first trip back to Madison since leaving Wisconsin to take the job at
Nebraska. The winners will face off in the regional semifinal Saturday night at
8 p.m. in a match shown on ESPNU.
Anonymous (December 3, 2007 @ 8:07am):
The women's team had a great year this year and should not be ashamed of their finish against a very hot Iowa St team. Good luck to the seniors; we fans are already looking forward to next year. How about a fan appreciation night in the next few weeks?
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