By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
The weekend looked great for the Wildcats on Saturday night against No. 14 Purdue. The Cats had won their match against Indiana the night before and were up 22-14 in the third game against the Boilermakers, with the match tied at one game apiece.
That’s when it all went wrong.
The Boilermakers had a 16-6 run as the Cats (10-9, 4-6 Big Ten) committed seven errors and lost the set 30-28. Unable to get back into the game, the Cats lost the next set 30-23.
“Momentum is a huge thing in tight games,” coach Keylor Chan said. “It’s especially important when we’re not playing at home.”
The Cats started on a winning note by beating Indiana (10-11, 1-8 Big Ten) 3-1 on Friday before losing to Purdue (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten) 3-1.
“The match was a tough one but we led in all games,” junior Lindsay Anderson said. “We lost the game ourselves tonight. They went on a big run and we couldn’t stop them.”
Northwestern lost the match against the Boilermakers but recorded 10 solo blocks, the third-best total in school history.
The win against Indiana saw big games from a number of players: Anderson had a double-double with 21 kills and 12 digs, senior Julie Purcell had a season-best 15 kills and freshman reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week Kate Nobilio had 25 digs.
“Lindsay’s been hitting the ball much better,” Chan said. “She keeps on working on her game and has been playing much better volleyball as a result.”
Junior Courtnie Paulus had a big weekend for NU recording consecutive double-doubles with 27 kills and 24 digs in two games.
“Everything came good yesterday (against Indiana),” junior Brittney Aldridge said. “(Saturday) we couldn’t really put all the pieces together and that was the problem.”
Errors were seen on both sides of the court on Saturday night. The Boilermakers committed 59, as the Cats committed 44. The difference was the Cats’ errors occurred at crucial points in the game with 12 coming in the decisive fourth set.
“We need to learn to finish games on the road,” Anderson said. “We had errors all around and we let it (the game) slip away.”
Chan said that the team played hard and executed the game plan well but slipped up when they should have put the match away in the third game.
The match against the Hoosiers on Friday was a difficult one for the Cats as well with slim leads in the first three games. At 20-18 in the third game, the Cats began to dominate and three kills by Anderson propelled them on a 10-5 run to take the game.
The Hoosiers didn’t comeback into the game and the Cats ran up an early 21-9 lead in the next game.
Aldridge said that the difference between the two nights was focus and the team lost their focus on Saturday night against the Boilermakers.
“Purdue was a really tough game,” Chan said. “The games were close but we couldn’t finish it off.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
