For the Wildcats, there is nothing more familiar than winning a frantic, unpredictable five-set match.
Of its four Big Ten wins this season, Northwestern has won them all in five-set nailbiters.
“We like to win in a dramatic fashion I guess,” junior middle blocker Sabel Moffet said. “We will get behind but we like to come right back at you.”
NU came back strong all weekend, winning at Purdue and Indiana in two five-set matches. This weekend’s sweep marked the Cats’ first road wins since the 2008 season. NU has now won both its games against Purdue and Indiana on the season.
“It’s a good springboard for us heading into the rest of the season,” junior setter Elyse Glab said. “It gives us the right sort of confidence to take on the rest of the Big Ten.”
Glab offered a career-best 66 kills and propelling the offense against Indiana on Saturday. Moffett and fellow junior middle blocker Naomi Johnson paced the offense, dishing out 39 and 19 kills, respectively. But it wasn’t just the middles delivering at the net.
“It was really awesome because our outside came up really big all weekend,” Moffett said. “They were putting away balls and taking the pressure off the middle.”
NU’s outside hitters, senior Ariel Baxterback and sophomore Alexandra Ayers, provided a diversion on the wing, both notching seven kills against the Hoosiers and 13 against the Boilermakers. Ayers recorded her second double-double for the Cats by adding a career-high 18 digs to her kills against the Boilermakers.
“It was my first time winning at Purdue,” Baxterback said. “The team just went out there and absolutely refused to lose, everyone on the court just kept fighting.”
The offense was backed up by a strong defensive performance from senior libero Kate Nobilio, who was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season. Nobilio contributed 42 digs on the weekend.
“Kate came up with so many important digs,” Baxterback said. “She really helps to keep us in games.”
To close out the weekend with two wins on the road, Nobilio and the rest of the Cats had to sync up their defense and offense to clinch a tightly-contested fifth set against Indiana that had seven match points. A block from a middle combo of redshirt freshman Kathryn Chrystal, who had 13 kills on the weekend, and Johnson was the game’s winning play.
“We played with a really strong sense of determination and never got frantic,” Glab said. “It was Halloween, and we just decided that there was no way that we were going to lose.”[email protected]
