Like any team at the beginning of conference play, Northwestern had hopes of competing in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season. The last time the Wildcats made it to the event was in 2010, when the team started out by winning five of six games to open Big Ten play.
With this year’s team standing at 1-5 in conference play after the weekend, second-to-last in the Big Ten standings, coach Keylor Chan and his team have shifted their sights away from the postseason.
“Right now that’s not something I am concerned about or the team,” Chan said. “We need to play better volleyball right now.”
After picking up their first Big Ten win of the season last Saturday against Indiana (8-10, 0-6), the Cats (12-5, 1-5) dropped consecutive home matches in straight sets to No. 1 Penn State (16-1, 6-0) Friday and No. 19 Ohio State (13-5, 4-2) the following night.
“I think that everyone is a little disappointed because we lost both games in three sets,” sophomore outside hitter Hannah Crippen said.
In the first set of the Penn State match, the Cats seemed ready to pull off an upset against the top team in the nation. After Penn State took a 14-9 lead following a 6-1 run in the middle of the set, NU came back to tie it up at 23 before letting the Nittany Lions win with two straight points.
In the second and third sets, NU took early leads but could not keep Penn State from making long scoring runs that ultimately cost the Cats the match.
The next night, NU struggled in the opening frame against Ohio State, allowing the Buckeyes to open up a 12-point lead before dropping the set 25-13 . Although NU fought hard in the second and third sets to keep the scores close, long runs by Ohio State resulted in the Cats losing both, 25-23.
“Against Penn State I thought we played at a very high level,” Chan said. “Tonight (against Ohio State) I thought we played flat initially and that took a lot of wind out of our sails.”
Once again, NU gave up long runs to opponents that took the Cats out of matches. In the first set of the Ohio State match alone, NU gave up four scoring runs, including back-to-back six and five point runs, which gave the Buckeyes a 16-7 lead in the set.
While this issue of consistency is something the Cats have worked on for several weeks in practice, Chan knows fewer opponents scoring runs would help the team win.
“Consistency, that’s something you preach as a coach and you don’t have to play at an All-American pace to be consistent,” Chan said.
Still, there were some bright points in the matches this weekend. Senior setter Madalyn Shalter had multiple 30-plus assist evenings and recorded 26 digs on the weekend, leaving her four digs shy of 1,000 in her career.
But the biggest accomplishment for many of the players was the strong play NU showed in the Penn State match. Sophomore outside hitter Yewande Akanbi said she thinks the solid performance will help the team’s self-esteem.
“It feels great (playing a good match against Penn State),” Akanbi said. “It helps us gain confidence and know we can go head-to-head with the number one team in the country.”
The confidence boost might be just what NU needs to get going this coming weekend, as wins become more and more important for a team trying to dig its way back into contention.
“Definitely we want to go 2-0,” Akanbi said. “I know a lot of us are tired of losing and it’s time to fight back and finally get those wins.”
