Home sweet home.
That is exactly what the Field House was this past weekend for the Wisconsin volleyball team as they swept both Illinois and Indiana three games to none.
The Badgers (19-3, 13-1 Big Ten) not only were at home for the first time in nearly three weeks, but were playing for the first time without starting outside hitter Lisa Zukowski. The sophomore suffered a season-ending knee injury Oct. 26 against Ohio State, and filling in her spot on the court was true freshman Jill Odenthal.
With Odenthal in, both the Illini and Hoosiers aimed their game attack at the newcomer. Odenthal stepped up the challenge and brought a new dimension to the court for the Badgers. Odenthal averaged 3.33 kills per game while hitting .275 for the weekend.
“I thought it was a really good weekend for us back at home,” said head coach Pete Waite.
Friday night’s match pitted the seventh-ranked Badgers against No. 25 Illinois (15-6, 8-5 Big Ten). The Illini came into the match riding on a seven-match winning streak. That streak ended pretty quickly, though, as UW swept them 30-20, 30-22, 30-24. Wisconsin dominated the match in almost every facet of the game.
They out-hit (.311-.151), out-dug (54-35), and out-killed (57-36) the Illini. Offensively, the Badgers had four service aces compared to UI’s two; however, UW also had eight service errors to the Illini’s seven.
Setting the pace for Wisconsin was senior all-American Sherisa Livingston. She led all players with 16 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Fellow all-American Lizzy Fitzgerald was once again the field general of the offense. She tallied 46 assists in the match and added eight digs and three kills.
However, most of the attention focused on the overall play of Odenthal and fellow newcomer Amy Hultgren. Hultgren, a junior transfer from Texas, had nine kills on 17 attacks and hit .471. The middle blocker also assisted in three blocks along with Fitzgerald.
On the left side of the net, Odenthal recorded 11 kills, four digs, and a .391 hitting effort.
Head coach Pete Waite was highly impressed with both Odenthal and Hultgren’s ability to pick up on the Badger’s style of play.
“To come out here in the third night and to be passing balls, hitting balls, doing everything we needed [Odenthal] to do just shows that she’s going to continue to make that progress and be real solid for us and cause a lot of trouble for our opponents,” said Waite.
As for Hultgren, Waite addressed how much her presence on the court means for Wisconsin.
“She has picked up our system very quickly and she has made a big difference to us on the court,” said Waite.
Illinois was led by Lisa Argabright, an outside hitter/middle blocker. She was the only player in double-digit kills with 11. UW held former Big Ten player of the week Shadia Haddad to eight kills and a .065 hitting percentage. She did lead all players though with 12 defensive digs.
Saturday night proved to be not much different from Friday as UW swept the Hoosiers, 30-26, 30-12, 30-21. Once again it was a balanced attack by the Badger squad. Statistically UW out-killed (55-33), out-dug (44-31), and out-hit (.342-.142) the Hoosiers (7-14, 4-10 Big Ten).
Individually, Livingston added to her UW-record kills mark by recording 13 kills and two block assists. Junior outside hitter Erin Byrd, who had 13 kills Friday night, recorded the same number against IU. Along with her 13 kills, she also had three service aces, nine digs, and one block assist.
Odenthal and Hultgren had another stellar performance. Odenthal had nine kills and eight digs in the contest, while Hultgren finally cracked the double-digit kill mark with her 10 kills. Hultgren also added four block assists.
“I’m just out there having fun,” said Odenthal who showed no signs of being the newcomer. “Every game it gets better and better.”
Hultgren credited better communication among the Badgers as a key for the constant improvement.
“I think our communication improves every game,” said Hultgren. “People are really starting to pick up on what the terms means [while on the court].”
Christina Archibald paced IU. The freshman outside hitter had nine kills and nine digs. Offensively, Laurie Gardner, sister of UW sophomore defensive specialist Korie Gardner, had 26 assists and five digs.
“It all means so much that we’ve taken care of the top teams in the Big Ten and now we need to take care of everyone else along the way,” said Waite. “We need to take care of business because obviously our goal is a Big Ten championship, and I think we’re taking one step closer every night.”
