The Northwestern volleyball team’s losing streak hit five Wednesday night after the Wildcats got routed at home by Wisconsin.
After a close first game, the Cats fell apart. They suffered from service errors, poor passing, pathetic execution and a weak defense in getting swept 28-30, 20-30, 16-30.
“We just got our butts kicked,” said senior co-captain Drew Robertson, who notched 26 assists. “It just seemed like nothing was going right for us tonight.”
The Cats jumped to a 6-1 lead to begin the match, but after a Wisconsin time-out, the Badgers went on a 7-3 run to pull within one. The lead disappeared after an error and two more sloppy points gave Wisconsin its first lead of the game at 19-18.
Wednesday’s game ended when the Cats committed a fault by touching the net.
In the next two games, NU lacked cohesion and failed to execute in all facets.
The discrepancy in the two teams can be best highlighted in the hitting percentages: The Badgers hit more than .400 percent in the second and third games, while the Cats hit .065 and .021.
“We just didn’t perform tonight, black and white,” coach Keylor Chan said. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t perform, in any aspect of the game.”
After the match, Chan was almost apologetic.
“You need to represent yourself and the institution,” he said. “Northwestern gives us a great opportunity, and we did not represent them well tonight.”
The loss dropped the Cats to 5-8 overall and 0-3 in the Big Ten. They have been swept in their last four matches, all at home.
The team seemed to lack both cohesion and communication all night. Defenders were often out of position as Wisconsin (7-4, 1-2 Big Ten) scored on several off-speed kills — dink shots that dropped in for points.
The Cats played at the mercy of the Badgers’ heavy hitters. Three Badgers nailed at least 10 kills, while setter Katie Lorenzen recorded 37 assists.
Things got so bad that after NU burned its second time-out while trailing 10-19 in the second game, the team surrendered the next four of five points.
“We just got dominated,” said freshman Courtnie Paulus, who led the team with nine kills. “Everything just fell apart.”
In the third game, Wisconsin went on runs of 8-2, 10-2 and 6-2 on its way to a blowout.
“(The feeling) is just sheer disappointment because I know our team’s better than this,” junior co-captain Christie Gardner said. “We really wanted to get our first (Big Ten) win tonight at home against Wisconsin. … Now we’re just going to have to go out and beat them at their place this year.”
What exacerbated the disappointment was the feeling among players and coaches that the team had made positive strides in each of its previous three losses, all to ranked teams. Wednesday’s match appeared to be a step backward.
“I don’t have an answer,” Chan said. “I don’t know. We’ll sit down as a staff and chat after this, try to figure it out.”
The Cats have only one full day to rest before they host No. 19 Illinois at 7 p.m on Friday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“We have to forget (the Wisconsin game),” Robertson said. “It’s just a loss — we have to come out and play the next game.”
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
