The UW volleyball team came up with a split this weekend with a win over the Michigan Wolverines Friday night and then a loss to the Michigan State Spartans Saturday night. The Badgers (18-7,10-4) handled the Wolverines (17-7, 9-4) Friday night in four games 30-25, 23-30, 30-26, 30-24. The feeling in the Field House was a bit different because the players weren’t in routine at the beginning of the match and the level of energy was a little below normal.

“That was one of the strangest-feeling matches that we’ve played in a long time,” head coach Pete Waite said. “I don’t know if it was partly our band wasn’t there to get the crowd going right away. It was great that a high school band came and helped out, but the Badger band just does something a little bit different at a higher level to get the crowd going.”

Despite the absence of the Badger band, the other Badgers came out strong. The Wolverines kept up with the Badgers until they broke away at a score of 27-23. Senior Lisa Zukowski recorded six kills and three defense digs in game one. After losing game two, the Badgers went into the locker room with some adjustments to be made.

“Although we were a little bit flat early, I thought Michigan was in the same boat,” Waite said. “We played well enough to win the first, they played well enough to win the second, and we made a lineup change in the third [game] to get some different match ups, and I think it helped out enough. Our players came out of the locker room a little more fired up and wanting to change the level of play on our side of the net.”

Games three and four were dominated by the strong play of Jill Odenthal and Aubrey Meierotto. Odenthal had 13 kills and five defense digs while Meierotto added 10 kills and three defense digs, totally nine for the night.

The best overall player on the Wolverine player, Erin Moore, led the team with 19 kills and six digs. Candace Gay also stepped up for the Wolverines throughout the four games, recording 18 kills. The Wolverine defense managed to out-block the Badgers six to three.

“There wasn’t a lot of blocking going on on either side of the net,” Waite said. “So somehow maybe on each side the hitters were doing great and had great shot selection. The number of blocks was really low on both teams.”

Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 5,479, the Badgers took the Spartans (17-7, 9-5) into five games but were unable to walk away with the victory 26-30, 30-21, 30-22, 25-30, 8-15. This marked the first time the Spartans have won both matches in a season against the Badgers since 1996.

What was a hard-fought four games came down to a controversial call by the referee in the fifth, making it hard for the Badgers to come back from a 4-8 deficit. The Spartans’ Kim Schram tossed the ball up for the serve before the referee’s whistle blew. She then caught the ball after the whistle, tossed it again and served. The Wisconsin coaches thought that the play should have been either replayed or a point awarded to the Badgers. Instead, a UW hitting error ended the play.

“It’s a judgment call on (the referee’s) part whether or not that should be a replay, or our point and you can’t protest a judgment call,” Waite explained. “We protested, but we can’t officially protest that kind of call. You only get one chance (to serve) and we felt she took two chances. So that was pretty critical. That was at the point … the turnaround when we switch sides.”

The call by the referee was the beginning of the end for the Badgers. The Spartans produced five blocks in game five to shut down the Badger offense. UW had only three kills after the controversial call and had a negative .167 hitting percentage, bringing down their total hitting percentage to .206. The Spartans hit .239 for the match.

Leading the Spartans was Schram, who had 22 kills along despite 11 hitting errors, and seven defensive digs. The Spartans won the dig column 69 to 61. Michigan State also out-blocked the Badgers 13.5 to six.

For the Badgers, Meierotto added 17 kills along with one service ace and seven digs. Zukowski and Odenthal both had 15 kills, with Zukowski adding 13 digs.