MN defeats Wisc -- 3-1

[snickers]

great match from the gophers.

jones hit .448 (14-4-27)
nelson hit .481 (17-4-27)

Kyla really struggled hitting at OH, but had 4 blocks, including 3 solos.

14-4 blocks (MN wins this battle)

sole possession of second place

[rudepa]

Minnesota Stats.

## Name K E TA Hit% A DG BS-BA
1 Bowman, Kelly 10 4 22 .273 2 9 0-3
4 Cumpston, Meghan 12 4 32 .250 1 7 0-0
5 Nelson, Meredith 17 4 27 .481 1 2 2-5
8 Hartmann, Rachel 1 1 2 .000 46 9 0-4
11 Jones, Jessy 15 2 29 .448 0 0 0-3
15 Tan, Christine 1 0 1 1.000 3 8 0-0
6 Peniata, Malama 1 0 2 .500 1 17 0-0
7 Schmidt, Kelly 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0-0
10 Hagerty, Rachelle 0 2 3 -.667 0 0 1-0
12 Roehrig, Kyla 4 7 25 -.120 0 1 3-1
16 Vatterrodt, Katie 0 1 3 -.333 0 0 0-0
Totals: 62 25 147 .252 54 53 6-16


Wisconsin Player Stats

## Name K E TA Hit% A DG BS-BA
5 Simpson, Jackie 6 1 12 .417 40 7 0-0
7 Dolgner, Brittney 25 8 58 .293 2 7 1-1
10 Carlini, Maria 8 9 32 -.031 0 2 0-1
11 Bladow, Amy 5 6 15 -.067 1 1 0-0
12 Reineke, Taylor 2 5 17 -.176 1 1 1-2
15 Jeffers, Audra 13 2 27 .407 0 0 0-1
6 Berkley, Amanda 0 0 1 .000 1 9 0-0
9 Dykstra, Katherine 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0-0
13 Wack, Jocelyn 0 0 0 .000 6 20 0-0
14 Mills, Megan 0 0 0 .000 0 3 0-0
Totals: 59 31 162 .173 51 50 2-5


I posted this already on the other thread, but its still fun to look at!!

[rudepa]

So Minnesota has taken over sole possession of 2nd place in the Big Ten at the moment. The Gophers will be praying for an upset this weekend when PSU travels to both Michigan and Michigan State. The Gophers found out that Michigan is not a fun place to play at and hopefully PSU will discover the same thing. It is an upset that is realistic as the Nittany Lions have not been playing their best with some huge losses to UW and OSU. So basically, the Big Ten title is not quite out of reach yet!!!

[lions]

I can't believe that Ruffda has given me credit for call this one tonight?

[bucky415]

This one was pretty simple: the Gophers just outplayed the Badgers in pretty much every area, with the exception of late in game three where their passing really broke down. The Gopher middles were very good, while the Badgers' did very little. Hartmann did a good job of connecting with her middles; I guess that has been an issue at times, but it really wasn't tonight. Simpson didn't have a very good match, and the passing/ball control didn't help any. Peniata was every bit as good as Gentil was in past years in this match. She served and passed pretty well and dug a lot of hard hit shots. She is the best libero in the conference and one of the best in the country, in my opinion. I am of course a big Wack fan, but I think that is just the truth. Carlini struggled again, especially on out of system swings, of which there were too many. I don't know what you do when your seniors are really struggling. Tonight, as against Northwestern, the Badgers gave up a lot of points on the rotation where Bladow and Carlini were front row with Simpson. Peniata's serving helped with that, but those two really need to step up their games for the Badgers to get back into form. Friday against Iowa is Senior Night, so I hope they come to play. Reineke had probably the worst match I have seen her play, not blocking very well and getting blocked on the slides. Minnesota really did a good job of blocking the slide attempts. Their ball control was excellent for the most part, allowing them to transition really well. Cumpston hit smart and tooled the Badger block repeatedly, and Bowman had a better night than I thought. The other outside position was a problem for Minnesota, so they need to get that fixed. Roehrig mi%*$# several balls for errors. Given how poor the Badger block was, she probably should have challenged it more instead of going line and missing.

The list of good things for Wisconsin is a lot shorter. Dolgner was really impressive offensively, especially given how little she had to work with much of the time. Jeffers hit well, which is good to see. She lined up too far inside on the block at times, though. Wack had a decent match, and Berkley made at least one pancake dig, if memory serves.

It was just a disappointing match for the Badgers tonight. They had too many service errors in the first game and weren't able to capitalize on Minnesota's early hitting errors. Their passing started out pretty strong but wasn't very good after that. When you have three players hit negative, you are probably going to lose. I think the fourth game was the only one where both teams played pretty well, but the Gophers made plays down the stretch, coming up with some big digs, while the Badgers made errors. The refs tonight belonged back at Foot Locker, but at least they got the line calls right on Dolgner's last two hitting errors, one was long and the other wide on somewhat out of system sets. I think more of the questionable calls actually went against Wisconsin, for once, but that didn't impact the ultimate result. The Gophers just looked better than the Badgers tonight. It looked like the Northwestern match again for Wisconsin, and that isn't going to get it done against a team of Minnesota's caliber. Congrats to the Gophers and their fans on the win. I just hope Wisconsin can get things back together and go into the tournament on an up note.

[rudepa]

I think you wrote an excellent synopsis of the match bucky415. It was just not WI's night. We know they can play excellent volleyball when they are firing on all cylinders as we saw against Penn State. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said this was comparable to their play against NW. The coaching staff is very experienced and will hopefully get these girls back on their A game for the tournament. WI has been very solid in the tourney the past couple of years, so I have no doubts on at least an Elite 8 appearance. They are a better team than last year for sure.

[rudepa]

And what is up with Kyla??? Inconsitancy is her game.

[wiscvball]

Oops... posted this on the other thread... I'll just repost here, but I think Bucky415 did a nice job wrapping up the match.

Great match by the Gophers... and a serious poor showing of leadership by the Badger upperclassmen. Carlini, Bladow, and Reineke all hit negative... at home... are you serious? We wouldn't beat Northwestern or Illinois with a night like that, much less beat a much more talented team in Minnesota.

And blocking? Yuck. 4.5. in 4 games. Puke. Reineke needs to get her head in the match when she plays Minnesota next year - she was a complete non-factor both times we played the Gophers. Yet she can hit over .340 and block almost 1.9 per game against the rest of the big ten... puke again.

Glad to see Dolgner play better against the Gophers... all around good match from her until the last few points... she looked like a first team all big ten player tonight.

Again, congrats to the Gophers... i still hope PSU drops a match this weekend and Minnesota can share the conference title. Hell, if PSU drops a match this weekend, Minnesota might be ranked ahead of them without ever beating them this season.

[wiscvball]

I will say this... I definitely won't miss Bowman, Nelson, Cumpston, or Peniata next year... All great players... but all have been thorns in the Badger's side for years.

I do hope those 4 go out with a bang this year... they deserve it. (as long as they don't play against UW again)

[rudepa]

Oh come on, we'll miss Kbow and Peniata for sure:-)

Nelson...........meh, she's been good this year, but I feel she is unfulfilled talent. Cumpston, i like her a lot, but havent really felt connected to her....probably the transer thing she did.

Overall a very solid senior class though:-)

[wiscvball]

ruder said:

Oh come on, we'll miss Kbow and Peniata for sure:-)

Nelson...........meh, she's been good this year, but I feel she is unfulfilled talent. Cumpston, i like her a lot, but havent really felt connected to her....probably the transer thing she did.

Overall a very solid senior class though:-)

Whatever... I won't miss them. I'm still pissed about the 17 kill, .500%+ ass whooping that Bowman put on UW a few years back. And Peniata... too much court vision... makes me sick

Seriously, she has eyes everywhere...

[spikerthemovie]

Should get Minnesota into the top ten finally, huh, assuming they take care of business with Iowa at home on a senior night that should be a lot of fun. I'm going to be missing all of those talented seniors.

[fightingminime]

MN's middles were set almost EXACTLY as many times as the left-sides. That will win ya some matches . .

[Deleted]

I'll second the kudos for bucky's wrapup.

Interesting tidbit: The Gophers outscored the Badgers 13-3 in Tan's service rotation. She has been playing some seriously good volleyball lately.

How can anyone not miss Nellie? Volleyball aside, that smile alone is worth the trip to the Pavilion.

Dolgner can elevate.

I'm tired. Later.