Sept. 28, 2005
Northwestern Match Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern hits the road in Big Ten country this week for some exciting conference action after opening the league slate at home last weekend.
The Wildcats will face Illinois at 7 p.m. Friday night in Champaign, Ill., in a game that will be tape-delay broadcast on Comcast SportsNet Chicago at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
NU then heads up the road to take on No. 22 Purdue at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon in Mackey Arena. The venue is a change from the Boilermakers' normal home court in an attempt to set the NCAA volleyball attendance record at the match.
After beginning the season with a 9-1 record and its best start in 18 years, the Wildcats had a rough go in the first weekend of play in what is arguably the nation's toughest volleyball conference.
Iowa and Minnesota came to Evanston and swept Northwestern, but four different 'Cats hit for double-digit kills against the Hawkeyes before NU allowed no Gophers to hit better than .294 Saturday.
Sophomore Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) currently leads the Big Ten with a .385 hitting percentage. Junior Cassie McLaughlin (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) ranks fifth in the category with a .355 average. The NU single-season record is .343, set by Erika Lange in 2002.
Sophomore Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) is seventh in the conference with a 4.00 kills per game average--currently the fourth-best single-season average in Wildcat annals.
Illinois comes into Friday's match receiving votes in the CSTV/AVCA coaches poll. The Illini fell in straight games to No. 4 Penn State before upsetting then-No. 16 Ohio State in five games last Saturday.
No. 22 Purdue entered Big Ten play as the league's lone unbeaten, but dropped both of its opening matches against the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes to fall to 0-2 in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers' Pack Mackey promotion slated for Sunday's match is a repeat of the same promotion in which Purdue set the then-NCAA attendance record of 10,645 on Oct. 29, 1985.