The No. 17 Wisconsin volleyball team got the 2003 season underway this past weekend by winning two of three matches at the Badger Volleyball Invitational. UW started off Friday night, taking care of New Hampshire with a 30-18, 30-28, 30-18 sweep.
The Badgers were led by sophomore Aubrey Meierotto, who registered a career-high 10 digs in addition to seven service aces, the latter a new three-game school record.
“I’ve been working in practice on my serving — just being consistent and having a very hard serve,” Meierotto said, “so I was happy to see that paid off in the game.”
UW found itself tied 8-8 in the opening game before Meierotto served 17 consecutive points. When the dust settled, the Badgers had a 23-9 lead and were well on their way to a win in the first match of the season.
“[Meierotto’s serve] has a lot of movement; it’s like a knuckleball in baseball. It can shift side to side three to four feet, drop down all of a sudden,” head coach Pete Waite said. “You could see it had their best passers struggling.”
The Badgers got their first test of the season in game two. The Wildcats led by a score of 20-17, when Meierotto once again brought her team back, serving Wisconsin to a 24-21 lead. New Hampshire came back to knot the score at 27, but a pair of sophomore Sheila Shaw kills and a service ace by senior Lisa Zukowski gave UW the win. On defense, senior libero Jill Maier recorded 12 of her career-high 19 digs in the game.
A 1-0 deficit was the only time Wisconsin trailed in the third and final game. Junior Jill Odenthal racked up six kills for a .750 percentage in the game, with Shaw chipping in four kills. For the match, Odenthal’s 15 kills led the way while senior co-captain Morgan Shields set up her teammates with 36 assists.
“I thought we really made it hard for New Hampshire,” Waite said. “They’d swing at some great balls and we’d pop them back up, and scrambled well. I think we kept our composure when things got a little wild. We came from behind in the second game, a seven-point swing. Aubrey went back and turned things around for us there. We showed some maturity for a young team.”
Freshman Maria Carlini finished the first start in her collegiate career with three kills and six digs.
“I think she (Carlini) did a nice job,” Waite said. “Offensively, we need to get some better timing with her and Morgan, but defensively she made some nice plays in the backcourt. She’s just consistent; she kind of reminds me of Megan Kohnen a couple years ago, who was a tall middle, but she could place nice defense, and (was) just real steady on the court. I’m real pleased with the way she played for her first time.”
The Badgers breezed through their first match Saturday, defeating the University of K Missouri — Kansas City in a three game sweep by scores of 30-17, 30-14, 30-18. Wisconsin trailed only once in the entire match, by a count of 3-2 in game two. Once again the Badger attack was led by Odenthal, who led the team in kills each of the three games, for a match total of 14 with a .591 hitting percentage. Zukowski added six kills and hit .545, while Shields handed out 37 assists. As a team, Wisconsin hit at a .348 percentage, while the Kangaroos managed only a negative .012 hitting percentage. Freshmen Lindsey Boler, Kirin Swanson and Amy Bladow all saw playing time in the win.
Saturday night turned out to be a different story for the Badgers as they found themselves on the other end of a three-game sweep, falling to Washington 30-26, 30-27, 30-26. After falling in games one and two, Wisconsin finally grabbed its first lead of the match at 2-1 in game three. The Badgers led by as many as four points but led for the final time at 23-22. From then on, tournament MVP Sanja Tomasevic took over with five kills down the stretch, including Washington’s final two points. The junior from Uzice, Yugoslovia finished the match with 18 kills. With a 3-0 mark in the tournament, the Huskies took the championship.
Shining in the loss for Wisconsin once again was Odenthal, who recorded a career-high 22 kills.
“Overall I just want to focus on my all-around game. I’m happy with the way I hit, but there are other areas of my game that I need to improve,” she said. “The biggest thing that I’m proud of is the way that our young players really kept their composure on the court. I think that is the sign of a maturing team.”
Meierotto and Zukowski each contributed 14 kills, and Shields tallied 50 assists. For their efforts, Meierotto and Odenthal were selected to the all-tournament team.
In the end, defense was the biggest factor in Washington’s win. The Huskies out-blocked the Badgers 10.5 to 6.
“They put up a big block and what they didn’t touch on the block they dug in the back row,” Waite said. “It was tough at times for our players to score but Odie, Zuke and Aubrey really lit it up tonight and did well. And we saw signs of what we’re capable of doing.”
