With first place in the Big Ten Conference on the line, the No. 20 Wisconsin volleyball team could not stop No. 23 Minnesota. The Golden Gophers took over sole possession of the league lead with a 30-24, 25-30, 30-28, 30-23 win over the Badgers, ending UW’s four match winning streak.

As was the case in the first meeting between the two teams, Minnesota used a strong block to stop Wisconsin. The Golden Gophers had 12 team blocks, led by five from setter Lindsey Taatjes, while the Badgers had only five blocks.

“I thought that early in the match we had an opportunity, neither team was playing great, but I thought we were playing some steady ball,” head coach Pete Waite said. “I think that the third game was critical, when we were up 28-27, a couple of service errors and that’s the tough part about it.”

Without a strong block, Wisconsin could not stop the offensive power of Gopher outside hitter Erin Martin, who had a match-high 25 kills.

Sheila Shaw led UW with 16 kills, and Aubrey Meierotto hammered down 15 kills. Jill Maier led all defensive players with 21 digs.

The Badgers used a 4-0 rally in the middle of game one to take an 18-17 lead. Behind the play of Martin, who had 10 kills in the game, the Gophers took a 27-21 lead. Wisconsin held off one Minnesota game point with a kill from Shaw, but another Martin kill gave the Gophers the game.

In game two, the Badgers jumped out to a 9-5 lead on an ace from Odenthal. Wisconsin had to serve for game point four times before a kill from Meierotto tied the match at one game apiece.

UW rallied from an 18-24 deficit in game three to tie the score at 25 after a service ace from Odenthal. The score was tied again at 26, 27 and 28 before two UW hitting errors gave Minnesota a 2-1 game lead.

The Badgers never got back on track in game four, falling behind 7-10. Minnesota upped its lead to 18-11and 25-15 as Wisconsin never challenged.

“It’s frustrating, we were down by nine, even coming back that’s a big come back,” Waite said. “It takes a lot out of you to come back from that far and then to not come away with a win in the game, it’s tough. So we knew that we had to come out strong and we struggled early. It was a battle to come back.”

Wisconsin (17-6, 9-3) rebounded the following night to sweep Iowa 30-26, 30-26, 30-24, despite 19 unforced hitting errors.

“We were pretty sluggish tonight, and I think part of that was coming off the loss at Minnesota last night,” Waite said. “I think the kids are a little strained emotionally and we started out very flat. They did a nice job coming back from behind in the first to get that one because Iowa was playing some good ball and they are much improved from the last time we saw them.”

Meierotto led all hitters with 17 kills and a .412 hitting percentage. Shaw added 12 kills and shared match-high honors with five stuffs. Maria Carlini, who played most of the match on the right side for Odenthal, also had five blocks, including three solos.

“I think (Maria) Carlini did a great job for us,” Waite commented. “I think she came in for (Jill) Odenthal and really had a great hitting percentage, took some nice balls, and just really gave us some good energy out there.”

The Badgers had 10 unforced errors in game one giving the Hawkeyes an 18-12 lead. Behind the serve of Shields, Wisconsin cut the lead to one (18-17) but Iowa upped its lead to three (23-20) on a kill from Giese. A kill from Shaw tied the game at 23, but the Badgers didn’t take their first lead of the period until 27-26 on a Meierotto kill. Meierotto hammered down two more of her game-high seven kills to give Wisconsin the game.

The Badgers took control of game two early, jumping out to leads of 7-4 and 11-7 before the Hawkeyes tied the game at 15. Iowa led by one or two points until Wisconsin tied the score at 22 off a Shaw kill. An Iowa hitting error put Wisconsin up two games to none.

Wisconsin switched its line-up in game three — moving Lisa Zukowski to libero and starting Marian Weidner in the front row. The change paid off as the Badgers jumped out to a 12-4 lead and was never challenged.

The Badgers are tied for second place in the Big Ten with Penn State after the Nittany Lions swept the Illini Saturday night.