The 2003 season came to a close for the Wisconsin volleyball team Saturday night in College Station, Texas with a second-round loss to Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament. After defeating Arizona in the first round, the Badgers fell to the Aggies in three games, 30-22, 30-24, 30-18.
Junior Jill Odenthal led the way on offense for Wisconsin with 12 kills. Middle blocker Sheila Shaw recorded 10 kills, the only other Badger in double figures. UW was out-hit .319 to .178 as a team in the match, and out-blocked 8.0 to 4.5.
“Of course I’m disappointed that the season’s ending today, but we played a very good team, and credit goes to Texas A&M for having an excellent match tonight,” head coach Pete Waite said. “We just had a lot of trouble on our outside. I think the blockers for A&M were touching a lot of balls and picking them back even though the scoring, the stats, on the digs were equal. I just thought they were making some critical digs, and at times we weren’t able to score.”
Game one was a neck-and-neck affair until the midway point. With the score tied at 15, Texas A&M took a 19-16 lead and never looked back. Wisconsin would get no closer than three points the rest of the way, as A&M took the game 30-22.
In game two, the hosting Aggies jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Badgers rallied to tie the score at nine. Another 4-0 run gave the advantage back to the host team. UW fought back once more — twice claiming a one-point advantage — but the Aggies were too much down the stretch, and the Badgers fell 30-24.
Texas A&M led the entire way in game three. The closest Wisconsin would get was 9-7 before the Aggies turned it on and completed the sweep 30-18.
“We were always playing catch-up ball,” Waite said. “Sometimes we were struggling with our serve-receive, and that makes it tough to run our offense as well. They were a good team and were playing well in front of an excited home crowd. They just kept the momentum on their side for most of the time. I thought that we battled well in the first two games. I think we played some really great ball, transitioned well off some tough hits and played the kind of game we’re used to playing, but we just broke down at times. Our ball handling needed to be better if we were going to beat that team.”
The loss marks the final match in the Wisconsin careers of seniors Morgan Shields, Lisa Zukowski, Jill Maier and Angie Sanger.
Shields totaled 35 assists and 10 digs in her Badger finale, while Zukowski was held to seven kills. Maier ended her time in the cardinal and white by racking up 20 defensive digs — a feat she accomplished in both Wisconsin tournament matches.
Texas A&M will advance to take on No. 1 seed USC this Friday in Lincoln, Neb. The undefeated Trojans moved on after defeating Loyola Marymount three games to none.
On Friday, the Badgers knocked off No. 22 Arizona in four games (30-24, 25-30, 32-30, 30-26). Leading for the offensive charge for UW were four players in double-figure kills. Shaw led the team with 18 kills and a .485 hitting percentage. Aubrey Meierotto nailed down 17 while hitting at a .457 clip. Zukowski and Odenthal added 12 and 11 kills respectively. Shields put up 57 assists running the Badger offense.
UW finishes the 2003 campaign with an overall record of 22-11.
-compiled from staff reports
