By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
It went down to a final burst of momentum for the Wildcats (11-10, 5-7 Big Ten) against Michigan (16-9, 4-8) Saturday night.
In the fifth game of a match where control tilted back and forth, Northwestern was down 10-6 and needed a change.
Coach Keylor Chan called a timeout to give the Cats a break and hope they could find one.
They came out after the break looking like a different team. A 9-2 run inspired by junior Courtnie Paulus’ three kills sealed NU’svictory and split the weekend’s games.
“Courtnie’s a big emotional force on our team,” Chan said. “She always plays at a high level, and when two or three players can play at that level, we have a good night.”
But the Cats weren’t so lucky on Friday as Michigan State shut out the Cats 3-0.
The match was dominated by the Spartans (15-7, 6-6), who had 20 kills more than the Cats.
In the 3-2 win against Michigan on Saturday, control of the game switched back and forth. The Wolverines had the early on with one game in the bag, and on a 7-4 run that took them to a 21-20 lead in the second game.
The Cats took advantage of a Michigan service error and grabbed the game 31-29.
The Cats controlled the third game, but at 18-17 down in the fourth, they lost the momentum again. The Wolverines had a 7-3 run that took the game away from the Cats.
“Passing and ball control is where we lost momentum,” Chan said.
Saturday saw big performances from many players on the Cats side of the court. Hyser set a school record with 15 blocks in the match, breaking Erika Lange’s 2001 record.
“I don’t usually think about individual things during the game,” Hyser said. “It’s pretty exciting though, and I had no idea that I blocked so many.”
Paulus had a career-best 21 digs and her fourth double-double in the last five games while junior Stephanie Jurivich had a career-best eight blocks.
“We’re not going to quit and we’ll keep trying hard,” Chan said. “We played hard and it was not the prettiest win, but we found a way and that’s what’s important.”
The match on Friday against Michigan State was a difficult one for the Cats. It propelled the Spartans to fifth place in the Big Ten rankings – one above the Cats.
The Spartans dominated the first two games, but vocal support from Chan made a difference in the third game and saw Jurivich notch up 14 assists in the game. The Cats lost by two points 30-28.
“He (Chan) is a very emotional coach and gives us direction when he says those things,” Jurivich said.
The Cats’ 29 errors in the match proved costly for them.
“We really need to find a place between being aggressive and making bad errors,” junior Lindsay Anderson said. “Every match is critical and to get blown out in three is really disappointing.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
