Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Set To Host Pair of Ranked States
10/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 5, 2005
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern returns to Welsh-Ryan Arena this weekend to take on a pair of ranked foes in No. 4 Penn State and No. 18 Ohio State.
The Wildcats (10-4, 1-3) face the Nittany Lions at 7 p.m. Friday night before taking on the Buckeyes at 7 p.m. Saturday night following NU's home football game against Wisconsin.
Both matches will be video streamed live on the internet on NUsports.com via CSTV's All-Access. WNUR's Dan Platt will call the play-by-play action. To subscribe to All-Access, navigate to the audio/video page on NUsports.com, or click on any of the All-Access buttons found throughout the site.
The Wildcats split their weekend on the road a week ago, defeating Illinois in five games Friday before falling in straight games Sunday at No. 21 Purdue.
In the Illinois match, a number of individual Wildcats set career-best marks, led by senior Christie Gardner (West Bend, Wis./West Bend East) and her 32 digs -- the fourth-best total in Northwestern history. Sophomore Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier), NU's top hitter, joined the dig party with a career-high 15.
Sophomore Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) aced Illinois four times in the first game, eclipsing her previous career mark of three before the teams even switched sides.
Junior Julie Purcell (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) bested her career-high in attempts by one in the match with 43.
Northwestern's 15-ace effort against Illinois was its second-best total of the year, falling just short of its 17-ace performance versus Brown at its own Wildcat Classic. The Wildcats rank second in the Big Ten with 1.73 aces per game. Individually, Anderson rates third in the conference with 0.51 aces per game.
No. 4 Penn State comes into Evanston with a 13-2, 4-0 record. Freshman Nicole Fawcett leads the offense with 4.50 kills per game. Setter Sam Tortorello averages 13.33 assists per game, and was named Big Ten and AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week.
Melissa Walbridge leads the Big Ten in hitting percentage with a .375 average, while as a team, the Nittany Lions are hitting a Big Ten-best .283.
No. 18 Ohio State enters the weekend with a 9-4 overall record, 2-2 in the Big Ten conference. The Buckeyes are led by Danielle Meyer with a 5.18 kills per game average. Last weekend, Ohio State was swept by No. 4 Penn State before doing some sweeping of its own, defeating Indiana, 3-0.
