The 15th-ranked Wisconsin team made history with a win at ninth-ranked Penn State Saturday night. For the first time ever, the Badgers defeated the Nittany Lions in Rec Hall 23-30, 32-30, 21-30, 30-28, 15-10. The game marked Wisconsin’s (15-6, 6-4) first upset of a higher-ranked team this season.
“It’s a huge win for our program. The way we’ve been playing this year has been a little erratic and to come here and to get the first win at Penn State is great,” said UW head coach Pete Waite. “Coming off a tough loss, we were hoping [the team] would rebound and come back stronger mentally and stay in the whole match. [The team] really did that and that’s a real credit to them.”
The Badgers had four players in double-figure kills to out-hit the Lions 84-80. Erin Byrd tied for match-high honors with 25 kills while Aubrey Meierotto came off the bench for a career-high 18. Jill Odenthal and Lori Rittenhouse had 10 kills apiece.
“Aubrey Meierotto came and did a great job off the bench. We hadn’t played her all year, but she was ready to go this week,” said Waite.
Penn State (18-3, 8-2) had five players in double-figure kills led by Mishka Levy with 25. Robyn Guokas added 14 kills and hit a match-best .591 hitting percentage. The Lions hit .314 percent as a team while the Badgers hit .218 percent.
Wisconsin played excellent back-court defense with five players in double-figure digs. Byrd had a career-high 24 digs while Lisa Zukowski, playing at libero, had a career-high 21 digs. Jill Maier played back row for the Badgers’ right-side hitters and had a career-best 12 digs while Rittenhouse dug 11 and Morgan Shields 10.
Shields had a career-high 76 assists at setter and again led the team with three service aces. Lauren Ford had a career-high two aces as the Badgers finished with a 7-3 advantage.
The Lions stuffed the Badgers 20 times with two block solos and 36 block assists, while Wisconsin had only five team blocks. Amy Hultgren led the Badgers with four assists.
The Badgers stayed even with the Nittany Lions through the first half of game one. The first period featured 14 early ties, including at 17-17. Penn State took a 21-17 lead aided by three Wisconsin errors, but Meierotto came off the bench for Odenthal to record a pair of quick kills, pulling UW within two (24-22). The Badgers couldn’t stop the Lions’ offense, which hit .472 percent for the game, as they had four kills to win.
Wisconsin trailed 3-8 in game two as Penn State scored six points off Badger errors. The UW offense was unstoppable, recording six straight kills to take a 9-8 lead. The Badgers led by as much as six (25-19), but the Lions came back keyed by two blocks to tie it at 26.
Penn State served for game point at 29-28, but a Byrd kill tied the game again. A Ford service ace gave Wisconsin its first game point at 30-29, but Penn State responded with a kill for another tie. A Lion service error followed by another Byrd kill tied the match at a game apiece.
Game 3 featured another strong offensive showing by Penn State, which hit .432 percent for the period. The Lions had 17 kills and only one error while the Badgers had 16 kills and 12 errors. The score was tired at 7-7, but Penn State recorded two of its five blocks for the game to take the lead for good.
Wisconsin broke a 7-7 tie in game four with a 9-2 rally. The Badgers took their biggest lead of the period at 16-9 off two kills from Odenthal. The Lions rallied to tie the game at 20. Meierotto keyed a late run by the Badgers with four kills including the game winner.
The Badgers jumped out to a 4-1 lead in game five and never looked back. Ford had a kill and a block to put the UW up 8-4 followed by a kill from Meierotto for a 10-5 Wisconsin lead. The Badgers’ biggest lead came off a block from Odenthal and Hultgren at 13-7. The Lions cut it to 13-10, but kills from Byrd and Odenthal gave the Badgers the match.
According to Waite, “We hope this is the one that is going to send us on the right path now. They have the confidence in themselves that they can walk out and play this level of ball against anybody in the Big Ten. We have to make sure we don’t overlook anybody and respect all the teams the same way.”
–compiled from staff reports
