Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan State
Wildcat Volleyball Fails To Pull Out A Road Win
11/9/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 9, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Northwestern's volleyball continued its skid Friday night, dropping in four games (30-26, 30-21, 26-30, 30-20) at Michigan State.
The Wildcats have lost their last seven matches and fall to 8-14, 4-9 in the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State improved to 16-6 overall and 9-6 in conference play.
Despite a nearly-perfect performance by sophomore Erika Lange (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg), the 'Cats could not stop a late-match hitting surge by the Spartans. Lange could hardly miss, nailing 12 kills, with no attack errors, and eight blocks.
NU took a four-point lead in Game One, but let the advantage slip and eventually trailed 28-21. A blocking rally at the end by Lange, Jill Buschur (New Bremen, Ohio/New Bremen) and Robertson brought the Wildcats' score up, but they lost the game 30-26.
In Game Two the 'Cats jumped out to an early lead behind the service of Jill Fantozzi (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park), but MSU's Erin Hartley surged ahead with six kills to put the game out of reach.
Game Three was a scrappy affair for both teams, as NU came away with the higher hitting percentage at .179. MSU committed nine attack errors, four service errors and four receiving errors to give the 'Cats the win. Freshman setter Drew Robertson (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly) sealed the fate of the Spartans with back-to-back service aces for points 27 and 28.
By Game Four, MSU was back on track and hit .543 with 22 kills for the game. Jenny Rood went 6-for-8, but junior Kelli Meyer (Madison, Wis./Edgewood) matched it with six kills of her own.
Meyer recorded a double-double and finished with a team-high 16 kills, 10 digs and a .351 hitting percentage. Robertson also doubled the digits with 43 assists, 10 digs, 3 aces and three block assists.
Once again Northwestern has outblocked their opponent, with 11 total blocks to MSU's seven.
The Wildcats are back on the road tomorrow night for a 6 p.m. CST match at Michigan.
