University of Minnesota Athletics
VB: No. 2 Volleyball Falls to Wisconsin in Five Games
10/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The loss snapped Minnesota's five-match winning streak over the Badgers that dated back to 2002.
"I thought Wisconsin played very well tonight," said Minnesota head coach Mike Hebert. "They have matured a lot since we played them earlier this season and did a good job of executing their gameplan. We did not have as much energy as we usually do and we struggled at times with our ball contol, but credit Wisconsin for doing a good job of taking us out of our game at times tonight. It was just one of those matches where you are little bit off. We had a couple of near misses in key situations and they did a good job of capitalzing on them."
Erin Martin (Ames, Iowa) paced the Minnesota attack with 29 kills and hit .375 (29-5-64) on the night. Martin's 29 kills was one off her career-high. Trisha Bratford (Reseda, Calif.) also tallied 21 kills on the night. Kelly Bowman (Maple Grove, Minn.) had her sixth triple- double of the season with 17 kills, 26 assists and 10 digs.
Lindsey Taatjes (Prinsburg, Minn.) had 49 assists, 20 digs, four blocks and five kills on the night. Paula Gentil (Forteleza, Ceara', Brazil) tallied 32 digs and had three service aces on the night. Lisa Reinhart (White Bear Lake, Minn.) also had 12 digs for the match.
Minnesota claimed game three to take a 2-1 lead, but Wisconsin claimed game four 30-27 to tie the match at two games apiece.
Wisconsin jumped out to an early 4-3 lead in game five, and extended it to 7-3 with three straight points. The Badgers moved ahead 8-4, but Bowman and Bratford had consecutive kills to cut the lead to 8-6. Wisconsin scored to move ahead 9-6, but Byrnes followed with a kill and a solo block to cut it to 9-8. Marci Peniata (Plymouth, Minn.) delivered a service ace to the game at nine. Wisconsin answered with consecutive points to move ahead 11-9. Taatjes followed with a kill to cut it to 11-10, but the Badgers answered with point to move the score to 12-10. Martin delivered a kill to make it 12-11, but again Wisconsin stemmed the tide, as it moved the score to 13-11. Martin answered with a kill, and Bowman and Nelson combined on a block to tie the score at 13.
Tonight's match will be telecast on a tape-delayed basis on ESPN 2 on Sunday, Oct. 31 at 12 noon (CT).
Wisconsin jumped out to a 6-2 lead in game one, forcing Minnesota to call a timeout. The Badgers increased their lead to 8-3, before the Golden Gophers answered with four of the next five points to cut the lead to 9-7. Wisconsin scored four of the next six points to push its lead out to 13-9. Minnesota came back with five of the next six points to cut the lead down to 14-13. The two teams exchanged the next six points to move the score to 17-16. The Golden Gophers tied the game at 17 on the next point, but Wisconsin answered with three of the next four points to take a 20-18 lead.
The two teams exchanged the next eight points to put the score at 24- 22. Wisconsin moved ahead by three points with the next point at 25- 22 to force the Golden Gophers' second timeout of the game. Wisconsin scored two of the next three points to push the lead to 27-23, but Bratford had a kill and Bowman followed with a service ace to cut the lead to 27-25 to force a Wisconsin timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Brynes and Taatjes combined on a block and the Badgers committed an attack error to tie the it at 27. However, Wisconsin rattled off the final three points to claim game one 30-27.
The game-one loss broke a 13-game road winning streak dating back to the Oct. 2nd match against Penn State. Minnesota outhit Wisconsin .268 to .239, but the Badgers had 20 kills to 15 for the Golden Gophers. Bratford paced Minnesota with five kills in the game.
Minnesota jumped out to an early 6-4 lead, and extended it to 11-6 with five of the next seven points. Wisconsin scored the next point to cut the lead to 11-7, but the Golden Gophers scored five of the next seven points to push their lead to 16-9. Wisconsin responded with three of the next four points to cut the lead to 17-12.
The two teams exchanged the next four points to make it 19-14, but Martin rattled off four straight kills to extend Minnesota's lead to 23-14 forcing Wisconsin to call timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Wisconsin committed a ball-handling error and Nelson helped combine on consecutive blocks to make it 26-14. The Golden Gophers followed with another point on a Wisconsin error to make it 27-14, which finished off an 8-0 Minnesota run. Wisconsin scored the next three points to make it 27-17, but Martin put an end to the run with a kill to push the lead to 28-17. The Badgers scored the next point, but Bowman put away a kill to give the Golden Gophers game point at 29- 18. Wisconsin fought off a pair of game points to make it 29-20, but Bowman finished it off with a kill to even the match at one game apiece.
Minnesota outhit Wisconsin .394 to .125 in game two, and also had 18 kills to 12 for the Badgers. The Golden Gophers also had 17 digs to six for Wisconsin. Martin paced Minnesota with seven kills, while Gentil had seven digs. Bowman also had five kills in the game.
Wisconsin jumped out to an early 9-7 lead, and extended it to 12-7 with three straight points to force a Minnesota timeout. Byrnes and Martin came out of the timeout with back-to-back kills to cut the lead to 12-9. Minnesota scored the next point on a Wisconsin error and cut the lead to 12-11 with Gentil ace. The two teams exchanged the next four points to put the score at 14-13. The Golden Gophers tied the game at 14 on the next point, and moved ahead 15-14 on a Bowman kill. However, Wisconsin answered with three straight points to move ahead 17-15. The Golden Gophers scored the next point to cut the lead to 17-16, but Wisconsin answered with four of the next six points to take a 21-18 lead. Minnesota answered with three straight points to tie the game at 21, which forced the Badgers to call timeout.
Out of the timeout, Martin put down a kill to give Minnesota a 22-21 lead. Wisconsin tied the game at 22, but Martin responded with a pair of kills sandwiched around a Gentil ace to put Minnesota ahead 25-22 to force Wisconsin to take a timeout. After the timeout, Martin put down another kill to give Minnesota a 26-22 lead. Martin's kill closed out an 8-1 Golden Gopher run. Wisconsin answered with three of the next four points to cut the lead to 27-25, but Martin temporarily halted the momentum with a kill to give Minnesota a 28-25 lead. Wisconsin answered with consecutive points to bring the Golden Gopher lead down to 28-27 and force Minnesota to call a timeout. After the timeout, Bratford put down a kill to put the Golden Gophers at game point at 29-27. Wisconsin fought off the game point to make it 29-28, but Bratford answered with a kill to give Minnesota the game at 30- 28. The game-two victory gave the Golden Gophers a 2-1 lead in the match.
Wisconsin narrowly outhit Minnesota in the game .273 to .268, and had 21 kills to the Golden Gophers' 20. Minnesota narrowly outdug the Badgers 26 to 24 in the game. Martin paced the Golden Gophers with 10 kills in the game, matching the team-high for kills in a game on the year. Gentil also had nine digs, while Taatjes and Bowman had six apiece.
Minnesota jumped out to a 13-9 lead in game four, but Wisconsin responded with four of the next five points to cut the lead to 14-13. The Golden Gophers scored the next points to move ahead 15-13, but Wisconsin answered with six of the next seven points to take a 19-16 lead. Minnesota scored the next point to make it 19-17, but the Badgers rattled off the next three points to take a 22-17 lead to force the Golden Gophers to call a timeout. Wisconsin scored the first point out of the timeout to go up 23-17. Minnesota answered with five of the next six points to cut the lead to 24-22. Wisconsin pushed the lead out to 26-22, but the Golden Gophers cut it to 26-25 with the next three points. The two teams exchanged the next four points to make it 28-27, but Wisconsin scored the last two points to take game four 30-27 to send the match to a fifth game.
Wisconsin outhit Minnesota .333 to .260 in the game. Bratford paced Minnesota with six kills, while Gentil had nine digs.
For the match, Minnesota outhit Wisconsin .287 to .266. The Badgers had 86 kills to the Golden Gophers' 82. Minnesota outblocked Wisconsin 11.0-to-8.0, and had 87 digs to 78 for the Badgers.
Sheila Shaw paced Wisconsin with 24 kills, and hit .370 (24-7-46) for the match. Jill Odenthal had 20 kills, hit .378 (20-3-45), had four blocks and five digs. Jackie Simpson also had 75 assists and 11 digs on the night.
Minnesota will return home to face No. 6 Penn State on Friday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. The Golden Gophers will also take on No. 7 Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.
