Friday night, the Wisconsin Badgers found out why Stacy Gordon is a three-time All-American. In Ohio State’s 3-1 win, the senior from Oshawa, Ontario, hammered a match-high 27 kills, while hitting an impressive .339 on 56 attacks. Per usual, she also flashed her back row brilliance by recording 20 defensive digs.

“You have to expect she’s going to get 70 percent of the balls and she got 26 more swings than the next closest,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. “She just comes out of everywhere and has every shot imaginable, which is very tough to practice because you’re just not used to that. That’s why she’s a three-time and will be a four-time All-American.”

Last season, en route to second-team All-America status, Gordon set a Big Ten record by averaging 6.62 kills per game, while also digging 3.56 balls per game. Heading into Friday’s match, she was averaging 7.00 kills per game, all the while hitting .447.

Despite her impressive numbers and accolades, one thing was missing from Gordon’s resume until Friday: a victory over Wisconsin. By defeating the Badgers at the Field House, Gordon and the Buckeyes earned their first official victory over UW since 1996, a string of 14 matches. Wins in 1999 and 2000 over Wisconsin were forfeited due to NCAA infractions, so unofficially the win laid rest to a seven-match drought. Regardless of the technicalities, the victory was greatly welcomed by the Ohio State standout.

“It feels great,” Gordon said. “We said before we went out there that we hadn’t beat them in 14 meetings, so we had a lot of statements to make. We went out there and played hard, kind of with the attitude of nothing to lose. Our team feels we have a lot of weapons. Because we have a lot of freshmen, a lot of people don’t know what’s coming at them. When we play to our strengths and our weapons, I think we’ll have a lot of success this year.”

Unlike past seasons, in which Gordon has been something of a one-woman show, the 2004 Buckeyes have a quality supporting cast around their star outside hitter. Against Wisconsin, it was freshman outside hitter Ami Stevens who provided the offensive support. Stevens contributed 12 kills to the Buckeye win, while Beaver Dam, Wis. native Briana McCarthy added nine.

“It kind of makes you feel more relaxed, knowing that if you’re not going to get set you have teammates in the middle, back row, right side that are going to put balls away and dig balls,” Gordon said.

However, in the clutch, it will always be Gordon taking the crucial swings for Ohio State. That was more evident than ever Friday, as Gordon put the finishing touches on both games three and four.

“I think any good team has somebody like that, somebody that everyone in the place knows is going to get game point; everyone knows who’s going to swing it at an important juncture,” Ohio State head coach Jim Stone said. “Stacy’s always delivered.”