It isn’t often that a coach exudes happiness after tacking two more games onto a four-game losing streak, but that’s exactly what Keylor Chan did Saturday.
“I thought we competed real well,” the NU volleyball coach said. “We’re on the brink. This was a great weekend for us. If you look at the results, it wasn’t. But if you look at the way we really played, I think you’re seeing a team that’s developing into a very good Big Ten team.”
The Cats (4-14, 1-7 Big Ten) dropped a 3-2 decision to Michigan Friday and a 3-1 match to Michigan State Saturday. Both games were at home at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
NU has now dropped six of its last seven games, but the Cats had their chances in both matches this weekend.
All five games against Michigan (12-6, 3-5) were decided by three or fewer points. And NU won the first game of the match to jump on top of Michigan State (12-5, 5-3). After posting a .421 hitting percentage in the first game, however, the Cats hit .105, .162 and .089 in the final three stanzas.
Inconsistency with the hitting game has plagued NU all year, but the team showed some signs of turning things around this weekend. Freshman Lindsay Pavlik, who had 15 kills and seven digs Saturday, said the Cats need to avoid errors at crucial points in the match.
NU ended Game 1 on a 7-1 run Saturday, with Erika Lange finishing the game with a kill.
Game 2 was tight throughout. The Cats took the lead at 9-7 on consecutive blocks by Molly Kamp and Lange. But then Michigan State rattled off seven straight points on their way to a 15-10 win to even the match.
The Spartans sprinted out to a 10-0 lead in Game 3 on NU errors and strong Michigan State net play, but the Cats responded with a big run of their own. Every NU player contributed as the Cats cut the lead to 11-9 after a thunderous Pavlik kill.
NU errors again struck at a crucial point in the match, and the Spartans won four of the last five points for another 15-10 win.
With Michigan State leading 10-8 in Game 4, the Cats had another big opportunity. The two teams exchanged sideouts before the Spartans’ Angela Morley swatted a block to spark a game-ending run and a 15-8 win.
Chan saw improvement this weekend, and he continues to stress that the development of the team takes precedence over wins and losses.
“I think we took some huge strides,” Chan said. “Against Michigan we could have folded the tent and we didn’t. We competed and had a chance to win that match. As we develop, the wins are going to come.”
Lange dominated at the net, posting 37 kills and 22 blocks. Senior outside hitter Carmen Burbach had 20 total digs against Michigan and Michigan State. She now needs two more to become the seventh NU player to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career.
Kamp calls the Cats a “roller-coaster team,” and the team’s lack of experience shows in its inconsistency. But Pavlik said even after six straight losses, no one is panicking in the NU locker room.
“We’ve lost games but we’re not holding our heads down at all,” she said. “We can see the progress we’ve made.”