The Northwestern volleyball team rode superior performances by sophomore Erika Lange and junior Kelli Meyer to victory, and a happy bus ride home from northern Chicago on Tuesday night.
The Wildcats (8-7, 4-4 Big Ten) had gotten back to the .500 mark with a win on Friday night against Purdue. Tuesday’s 3-1 victory at Loyola pushed them to a winning record, something they had lost after a recent three-game losing streak.
The Cats won the first game of the match, 30-15, and then took the second game, 30-22. But the 330 spectators at Loyola helped the Ramblers to come back in Game 3 with a nail-biting 31-29 win.
“When the match gets tight, our team gets really tense,” explained NU coach Keylor Chan. “We have to work on our nerves.”
But the Cats didn’t let the Ramblers’ run last long, closing out the match with a 30-26 Game 4 victory.
“We want to keep (our momentum) rolling,” Chan said. “We executed at a very high level tonight.”
Lange led the team with a double-double of 15 kills and 14 blocks. Meyer followed her triple-double performance against Purdue with a double-double, recording 12 kills and 14 digs.
Chan said Meyer has shown considerable improvement this season, developing into one of the team’s leading upperclassmen.
Still, Meyer wasn’t the only major contributor for the Cats. Sophomore Jill Buschur had 12 kills and fellow sophomore Molly Kamp had six.
As the Cats continue through the second half of their season, their goals are clear. Reaching the NCAA tournament this season – just one year after going 5-25 – would be a major success story for NU.
But in order to achieve this feat, NU will most likely have to finish among the top five or six teams in the Big Ten, a league which includes such powers as Wisconsin (14-2, 8-0) and Ohio State (15-1, 7-1).
Prior to Tuesday’s match, the Cats were tied for fifth place with Michigan State, Illinois and Minnesota. The Cats have an opportunity to distance themselves from the middle of the pack with two matches remaining against Minnesota as well as meetings with Michigan State and Illinois.
The team also must face both Wisconsin and Ohio State once more.
“The next two weeks are going to be tough,” Chan said, “but I like our progress.”
A lot of NU’s progress can be traced to the play of freshman Drew Robertson, who had 43 assists against Loyola (11-6, 7-0 Horizon League). She was also recently featured on Rollshot.com, a leading volleyball Web site. Robertson had a career night against Purdue on Friday with 58 assists and 16 digs.
The Cats resume their five-match road trip this weekend with a contest at Iowa, followed by matches at Minnesota, Penn State and Ohio State. They return home to Evanston – where the renovation on the floor at Welsh-Ryan Arena should be finished – to play a key match against the Golden Gophers on Nov. 2.
