Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Ohio State
Ohio State Wears Down Northwestern, 3-1
10/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 28, 2005
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Northwestern won game one Friday night at St. John Arena and proved to be pesky all match long against No. 19 Ohio State, but it was the Buckeyes who took the 3-1 victory by gradually wearing the Wildcats down, 31-33, 30-28, 30-25, 30-20.
With the loss, Northwestern falls to 12-9, 3-8 in the Big Ten. Ohio State improves to 15-5, 8-3 with the win.
Northwestern scored the first four points of the initial game, forcing several Buckeye overpasses with strong serving. After junior Cassie McLaughlin (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) slammed home one such overpass for an 8-3 lead, OSU called timeout.
The Wildcats kept between a four and six point lead until a 3-0 spurt boosted NU's lead to eight, 20-12. With Northwestern cruising, 27-19, Ohio State suddenly lit a fire and reeled off eight consecutive points to tie the match, 27-27.
A service error ended the OSU streak, but the Buckeyes earned a game point, 29-28. Freshman Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) got a kill before an OSU attack error gave the advantage back to Northwestern. Three game points later, the Buckeyes were in the net to give NU the first game of the match, 33-31.
Ohio State opened the second game with a 5-1 lead, but Northwestern cut the lead in half, 6-4, on a Christie Gardner (West Bend, Wis./West Bend East) ace. Ohio State scored the next three points before Northwestern got hot.
A Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) ace, a solo block from Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) and a bevy of kills propelled a 12-4 Wildcat run to give NU a 16-13 lead.
Ohio State eventually fought back to tie the game, 22-22, and again at 23-23. Sophomore Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) killed a ball two points later to stake the Wildcats to a 25-23 advantage and force an OSU timeout.
The Buckeyes came out of the break with a 5-1 run to take a 28-26 lead, eventually winning game two, 30-28.
Ohio State again took the lead to start game three, 8-5, before Northwestern ran off four-consecutive points for a 9-8 advantage. The Buckeyes countered with a 5-0 run of their own to regain the lead, 13-9.
After Northwestern whittled the OSU lead to one, 15-14, the Buckeyes pushed its cushion back out to four points, 20-16, en route to a 30-25 game three win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
In the beginning, game four did not feature so many runs as the rest of the match. Ohio State fought its way to a four-point lead, 12-8, before NU head coach Keylor Chan used a timeout. When OSU added one more point to its advantage, 18-13, the Wildcats again stopped the action.
Northwestern could not get any closer in the game, and Ohio State closed out the game, 30-20, and the match, 3-1.
Paulus finished with her third double-double of the season, notching 10 kills and a team-best 13 digs.
Aldridge killed a team-high 14 balls, while Julie Purcell (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) had 12 and Anderson finished with 10.
Hyser finished with a career-best eight kills and a team-high .538 hitting percentage in her most extensive court time of the season.
Gardner finished with 11 digs, moving her into second-place on NU's career list, just 12 shy of taking over the top spot.
Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. CT, Saturday, Oct. 29, at Penn State.
