By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
It was a tough task for freshman Ariel Baxterbeck to replace senior Lauren Greenwood, who was sick with the flu, in the starting lineup against Iowa (13-13, 2-12 Big Ten) on Saturday.
It was Baxterbeck’s first start of her Northwestern career, but she played like a regular starter. Baxterbeck was a dominant defensive force on the night adding a career-best 17 digs in the Wildcats (13-10, 7-7 Big Ten) 3-1 victory.
“As a freshman, she stepped up and played great volleyball,” junior Courtnie Paulus said. “Tonight was a testament to how good she is and how good she will become.”
It was a tight match with leads in the four games switching thirteen times. No team was able to dominate play, but Northwestern was able to slip away with the victory in the end.
“I was just happy to get a win,” coach Keylor Chan said. “Winning away is always more difficult than winning at home but we were able to come back and perform.”
The first game was tight all the way through. No team had a lead of more than four points at any stage.
With the Cats 27-23 up, the game looked to be in the bag. But the Hawkeyes did not give up, coming back to tie the game at 30-30. A kill by junior Lindsay Anderson and a Hawkeye error later allowed the Cats to slip away with the game.
The second game was much the same story with the Cats unable to mount a lead that exceeded four points. The Cats had 15 errors in the game and could not establish any kind of momentum.
“We made a fair share of errors,” Paulus said. “It came in the way of us gaining any kind of control in the match.”
The third game saw the Hawkeyes race up to a 21-14 lead. Iowa seemed revitalized after the break and played smart, offensive volleyball with 20 kills in the game.
Northwestern managed to come back in the game with a 7-3 run on the back of two Paulus kills. But it was not enough and the Hawkeyes won the game 30-26.
“We let them play with us too much,” Baxterbeck said. “We didn’t come out for the game with the same intensity as we usually do.”
The final game was similar to the first and second games and the Cats just managed to sneak away with it. The Cats’ side-out team proved to be a deciding force with 15 kills.
“Our side-out team saved us and we’ve been working on that,” Chan said. “Our defense and blocking wasn’t so good tonight but what we’ve been working on helped us out tonight.”
Three players had double-doubles on the night: Anderson had 17 kills and digs each, junior Stephanie Jurivich had 57 assists and 10 digs, while Paulus had a season-high 20 kills, and 18 digs to record her fifth double-double in the last seven games.
“(Paulus is) an amazing all-round player,” Baxterbeck said. “Her focus is great, passing is awesome and she’s a real beater on court.”
Reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week sophomore Chelsy Hyser added 12 blocks, just a week after setting the school record with 15 blocks.
“We didn’t play our best game tonight,” Baxterbeck said. “We need to work on coming out for every match with the same intensity because that didn’t happen tonight.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
