Although the Wildcats dropped two matches last weekend, they felt they put out a solid effort both nights, particularly against Big Ten leader Penn State.
Northwestern lost to No. 19 Ohio State (15-6, 8-4 Big Ten) 3-1 on Friday and No. 3 Penn State (21-2, 12-0 Big Ten) 3-0 on Saturday on the road. The Cats fell to 12-10, 3-9 Big Ten.
“We played good defense this weekend,” outside hitter Lindsay Anderson said. “Our passing and serve receive were especially good at Penn State.”
The Cats had nearly as many digs as Penn State (55 compared to 58) but had more serve-receive errors (NU allowed four while Penn State had just one). Senior libero Christie Gardner broke NU’s career digs record, finishing the match with 1,437 digs.
Freshman middle blocker Chelsy Hyser said the defense in the Penn State game was “the best we’ve had all year,” and that the Cats “stuck with (Penn State).”
In games one and two, the Cats fell behind early on but kept up with Penn State after they were already down several points. Penn State won the games 30-24 and 30-23.
“We need to fight from the start,” Hyser said of the Cats’ slow beginnings.
In game three, the Cats led 5-3, and the score remained close until Penn State had a 5-0 run and led 21-16. NU closed the lead to three 24-21, but Penn State got another 6-0 run and finished the game 30-21.
Anderson said the Cats needed more blocks against Penn State because of the strength of hitters. The Cats had only three blocks but were blocked successfully nine times. However, Penn State recorded 50 kills, just one more than NU.
“We need to work on playing balls out-of-system and executing every point,” Anderson said.
The Cats also had a strong performance against Ohio State but came up short.
“We played hard we just had some errors here and there,” coach Keylor Chan said.
NU recorded 19 serving errors and 26 attacking errors compared to 11 and 20 for Ohio State. In addition, NU had just 44 digs compared to the Buckeyes’ 81 digs.
“We executed pretty well,” Hyser said. “Serving was our biggest weakness.”
The Cats dominated the first part of game one and eventually led 20-12 and then 27-19. However, Ohio State had a 8-0 run and tied the game. The Cats held on, though, and got their only win of the match 33-31.
In games two and three, Ohio State had early leads, but the Cats were able to recover. In game two, the Cats led 25-23 but allowed Ohio State a 5-1 run and lost 30-28. In game three, the Cats closed the gap to trail 15-14, but Ohio State broke away to 20-16 and won 30-25. The Cats stuck close to the Buckeyes at the beginning of game four but fell behind 12-8. NU never recovered from the deficit and lost 30-20.
The Cats still were fairly positive about the weekend as a whole.
“We improved on being a team,” Hyser said. “Blockers are doing really good, and hitters are smarter in their shots.”
Reach Annie Martin at [email protected].
