Ohio State and Penn State, sitting together atop the Big Ten, have a combined four conference defeats; the Northwestern volleyball team has just three conference victories.
After last weekend, both figures remain unchanged.
NU’s brutal roadtrip east featured losses at No. 7 Ohio State (24-2, 14-2 Big Ten) on Friday and at No. 4 Penn State (23-2, 14-2) on Saturday. The Cats salvaged an opening game win at Ohio State, but they faltered and couldn’t hang with two top-10 teams.
“(Ohio State) is lot better than people thought they would be,” senior Leah Delcourt said. “With Stacey Gordon and the speed of their offense, when you play them you see why they’re one of the best teams in the Big Ten.
“And Penn State — they’ve always been a powerhouse, so when you walk into Penn State you know they’ll be good.”
The weekend began favorably for the Cats. Behind freshman Lindsay Anderson — who led NU in kills in both matches, with 12 against Ohio State and nine against Penn State — the Cats stole a game against the Buckeyes in front of a crowd of 1,189 at St. John Arena.
The opening game featured 17 ties and several mini-spurts, including a 3-0 NU run to end the game at 32-30.
But in the next three games, Ohio State showed why it has the league’s most efficient offense. Ohio State’s Gordon, who earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors for the fifth time this season, posted a monstrous double-double with 30 kills and a career-high 27 digs.
“Stacey Gordon took control,” said freshman Stephanie Jurivich, who led NU outside hitters in hitting percentage in both weekend matches. “I don’t know if we could stop her.
“You just go up there and you do your best, but you have to accept the fact that she’s going to get her kills.”
Ohio State’s Ami Stevens had 17 kills and Maya Mapp added 15 as the Buckeyes cruised to a 3-1 victory (32-30, 20-30, 20-30, 11-30).
On Saturday in State College, Pa., both NU and Penn State had several long rallies, but Penn State proved too much for NU to handle. The Nittany Lions recorded 80 digs, a new season-high for a three-game match (17-30, 25-30, 8-30) while recording a .400 hitting percentage.
Penn State put an exclamation mark on the sweep with a 30-8 game three win, which was NU’s most lopsided defeat of the season.
The Cats had only five kills with four errors, while Penn State recorded 21 kills with only one error.
But despite the score, NU players said the game didn’t feel like a rout.
“It didn’t feel like we were losing by that much when it happened because they were making great digs and we were making great digs,” Jurivich said. “Then we would lose the point, and we’d get frustrated, and it would all fall apart.”
The defeats guaranteed that NU will finish with a losing record, something the players said they would not worry about in the season’s final two weekends.
“We need to concentrate on one game at a time,” junior co-captain Christie Gardner said. “All that’s left to do is focusing on finishing the season with four more wins.”
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
Friday
NU 1
OHIO St 3
Saturday
NU 0
PENN St 3
