A special apperance by the NU marching band may have given the Northwestern volleyball team the advantage in an otherwise evenly divided crowd, but trumpets and trombones were no match for Illinois’ dominating tandem in the frontcourt.
Six-foot-five senior Lisa Argabright had a hitting percentage of .409 and combined with six-foot-three sophomore Rachel VanMeter for 26 kills as the Fighting Illini edged out the Wildcats 3-1 (16-30, 30-21, 30-14, 30-27) Wednesday night.
Going into the match NU head coach Keylor Chan knew his team wouldn’t be able to match up with the tremendous size of an Illinois team that boasts ten players over six foot. Instead, he planned to utilize the Cats’ quickness and superior ball handling skills to stifle Illinois.
It almost worked.
In the first game, NU played like the taller team — recording 11 kills and three of its six blocks. Sophomore Christie Gardner led the charge with three kills and a hitting percentage of .750, but watched her team fall apart as the match wore on.
“In the beginning we were executing according to plan,” she said. “But after that we just expected them to roll over and die, and they didn’t.”
The Cats were up 5-3 and looked poised to run away with the match when a myriad of mental mistakes — including three service errors — propelled the Illini to a 20-9 run. Illinois eventually closed out the game and tied the match.
During the ten minute break between the second and third games, Chan expressed to his team the need to get back into the match mentally.
“I told them that we needed to come out with more fire,” he said. “Illinois was playing like they wanted to win more than us.”
Eleven attacking errors by the Cats in the third game sealed their fate. NU was unable to pull out of the downward spiral and watched as it hit ball after ball into the net and out of bounds. With momentum on their side, the Illini ran away with the match.
“I felt like we were prepared,” freshman Lauren Greenwood said. “We just made a lot of unforced errors.”
Although they haven’t been used in starting roles yet, Greenwood and fellow classmate Julie Purcell came off the bench to make significant contributions and a strong case for more time.
“At the time I felt that Julie and Lauren gave us the best chance to win,” he said. “They’ve proven that they can come in and compete, but we’ll see what happens.”
He said that the Cats will go with their normal starters as they travel northward to take on No. 23 Wisconsin.
But so would a loss.
