Sept. 25, 2006
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern concludes its current three-week homestand this week, hosting Illinois Wednesday night in a midweek Big Ten contest before taking on Iowa Friday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Friday night's contest with the Hawkeyes will be broadcast by ComcastSportsNet Chicago on a tape-delay basis, airing at 3 p.m. CT Saturday, Sept. 30. NOTE: That broadcast time is a change from the originally publicized time of noon CT Saturday.
The Wildcats began their current seven-match stretch by winning the Wildcat Classic Sept. 15-16, coming out on top of three matches including a five-game victory over No. 24 Arizona. Northwestern began Big Ten play last weekend, dropping a pair of matches to perennial power Minnesota and No. 14 Wisconsin.
Following the losses last weekend, NU is 3-2 on its current homestand. After opening the season with a sweep of UIC at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Wildcats are 4-2 at home in 2006. Last season, Northwestern went 9-5 in matches on its purple court.
Both Illinois and Iowa enter this week's matchups with identical 0-2 records in the Big Ten, though the Illini are 9-3 overall and the Hawkeyes are 11-3 on the year. Last season, the Wildcats swept the season series against Illinois and split with Iowa.
Freshman Kate Nobilio (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) had a big weekend, averaging 6.38 digs per game including a 32-dig performance against Minnesota--the second 30-dig effort of the season for the freshman. She leads the Big Ten in overall digs per game with 5.20.
Sophomore Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) also had a strong opening weekend, banging out a season-high 14 kills in both matches. She hit a team-high .367 against Minnesota before hitting at a .400 clip in a three-game loss to Wisconsin. She currently ranks sixth in the Big Ten with a .382 hitting percentage in conference-only matches.
Wednesday night's contest against Illinois will be streamed live on NUsports.com via All-Access. To view the match, click on the audio/video link at NUsports.com shortly before start time. Gametracker will be available for both matches this week.
Wednesday night is Northwestern faculty/staff night, with all NU faculty and staff admitted free with a WILDcard. Friday night is Scout Night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.