Oct. 27, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. - For the third time in as many games, Northwestern's volleyball team was defeated by a nationally ranked team on the road. The Wildcats fell to No. 10 Ohio State in three games (30-22, 30-13, 30-15) Saturday night in Columbus.
NU is now 8-11 overall and 4-8 in the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State improves to 18-2, and 10-2 in the conference.
Once again the 'Cats started out strong in Game One. They led the Buckeyes by one, 10-9, before OSU's Anne Botica and Stacey Gordon rattled off four straight kills. NU never regained the lead for the rest of the match.
Ohio State bolstered their statistics while keeping the numbers for the Wildcats down. OSU hit .500 for the match while Botica posted a match-high 16 kills, 12 digs and a .538 hitting percentage. Freshman Stacey Gordon had 15 kills and hit .438.
For NU, sophomore Molly Kamp (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore) and freshman Jill Buschur (New Bremen, Ohio/New Bremen) each had a team-high eight kills.
The Wildcats had their leanest performance in blocking of the season, as Buschur and Sarah Ballog (Coto de Caza, Calif./Santa Margarita) shared the only block recorded for NU.
Northwestern returns home next weekend to host Indiana and Illinois. Match time is set for 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday nights. The matches are tentatively scheduled to be played on the main court at Welsh-Ryan Arena.