Sept. 29, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Northwestern women's volleyball team defeated Indiana 3-1 (18-30, 30-21, 30-18, 30-26) Saturday night in Bloomington to improve their record to 6-4 and 3-1 in Big Ten Conference action.
The NU program continues to make giant strides, as the Wildcats have surpassed both the overall and conference win totals from the 2000 season after just ten matches. The victory over Indiana also marks the first time Northwestern has been victorious in Bloomington in over ten years.
The match at Indiana was recorded for television and will be broadcast Monday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. CST on FOX Sports Chicago.
The Wildcats trailed early in the match after dropping the first game to the Hoosiers (3-8, 0-4). Indiana controlled the pace of the first game, but lost momentum after making mistakes when crucial points were on the line. In Games 2 and 3 Northwestern was able to go up a few points, retain the lead and put the games away.
For Northwestern, freshman outside hitter Jill Buschur (New Bremen, Ohio/New Bremen) stepped it up again and tallied a team-high 13 kills. Junior outside hitter Kelli Meyer (Madison, Wis./Edgewood) recorded her second double-double of the season with 11 kills and 11 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Erika Lange (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) was the third Wildcat with double-digit kills, putting up 12.
Despite the loss, Hoosier freshman Christina Archibald had 18 kills and nine digs. Senior Hillary Toivonen had the other double-double of the match with 13 kills and 13 digs.
"We blocked well, we passed well, we served well. The big three that we always talk about, we came through," head coach Keylor Chan said following the match. "The first game we played like we played against Illinois, and the result was the same. Then we turned it up and it wasn't really close after that."
Northwestern currently leads the Big Ten in blocking and added another 19 team blocks this weekend to bolster their statistics. Individually for the 'Cats this weekend, junior middle blocker Sarah Ballog (Coto de Caza, Calif./Santa Margarita) surpassed the 500 career kill mark, and sophomore outside hitter Molly Kamp (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore) now has more than 200 career kills.
The Wildcats, who lost to Illinois in Champaign Friday night, are now home for two consecutive weekends. Undefeated No. 15 Ohio State comes to Welsh-Ryan Arena Oct. 5, and No. 6 Penn State-the team NU upset in Evanston last season-is in town Oct. 6.