Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Illinois
Women's Volleyball Shut Down 3-0 at Illinois
9/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 28, 2001
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Northwestern volleyball team (5-4, 2-1) hit just 0.041 percent in a Big Ten Conference loss to Illinois (6-4, 1-2) Friday night.
The Fighting Illini picked up their first conference victory in the 3-0 (30-24, 30-19, 30-20) match. History was not on Northwestern's side, as the last Wildcat defeat of Illinois in Champaign dates back to 1984.
Illinois dominated most of the match until the third game, when Northwestern edged out a lead. The Illini took a timeout with NU leading 20-18 and came back to score 12 straight points behind the service of freshman Lauren Harkes to end the game and the match.
Sophomore middle blocker Lisa Argabright did most of the damage for Illinois with a match-high 13 kills, hitting .524, and seven total blocks.
For the Wildcats, freshman outside hitter Jill Buschur had a team-high 10 kills. Junior middle blocker Sarah Ballog (Coto de Caza, Calif./Santa Margarita) continued her strong hitting with six kills and only one error for a .556 hitting percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Erika Lange (Orland Park, Ill,/Sandburg) was held to a total of five blocks and five kills.
"Illinois played extremely well," head coach Keylor Chan said after the match. "We didn't execute, and that's what made the score what it was.
"They shut Erika Lange down, but Sarah Ballog did what she always does and got some kills. Jill Buschur took care of some things and did well under pressure."
Saturday night's match at Indiana (3-6, 0-2) will open up FOX Sports Chicago's coverage of Big Ten volleyball for the 2001 season. The match will be broadcast Monday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. CST on FOX Sports Chicago.
For fans who wish to listen to Saturday night's match in Bloomington, Indiana student radio station WIUS will provide a live feed of their broadcast using RealPlayer from their website, www.indiana.edu/~wius/audio.html.
