Sept. 25, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern volleyball will travel to Madison, Wisconsin for Friday's match with the Badgers, the first Big Ten road match this season. Wisconsin, ranked No. 23 by the AVCA for the week of September 22, comes into the match with an 8-3 nonconference record, including sweeps of Southern Florida and Western Carolina at the Georgia Tech Invitational last weekend.
The Wildcats look to pull even in conference play after dropping their Big Ten opener to Illinois on Wednesday night. Northwestern dominated Illinois in game one, but dropped the next three to fall to the Fighting Illini (30-16, 21-30, 15-30, 27-30) at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Wildcats are now 9-4 overall with the 3-1 loss.
Junior outside hitter Jill Buschur (New Bremen, Ohio/New Bremen) led the Wildcats with 13 kills, three block assists and two aces while junior setter Drew Robertson (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly) had 41 assists and 10 digs in the match. Senior outside hitter Iwona Lodzik (Tarnobrzeg, Poland/Tarnobrzeg) contributed 12 kills and nine digs.
The Badgers are home for the first time since September 13 and will try to win three consecutive matches for the first time this season as they face the 'Cats. Two of Wisconsin's losses have come to Top 10 opponents, their most recent to No.5 Georgia Tech on September 19 (24-30, 31-33, 30-26, 30-27, 15-10).
Jill Odenthal averages 4.06 kills a game for the Badgers, while Sheila Shaw leads the team with a .338 hitting percentage. Wisconsin has nearly double the service aces as their opponents in 2003 and averages three more kills per game.
NU stays on the road through October 4 before returning home October 10 and 11 vs. Ohio State and Penn State. Game time is set for 7 p.m. both nights. For tickets, call (847) 491 CATS or visit Nusports.com.