Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Illinois
Illinois Downs Northwestern, 3-0
9/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2006
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- In a midweek match-up Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern fell to Big Ten foe Illinois in a sweep, 30-21, 30-23, 30-27.
The loss evens Northwestern's record at 6-6 on the season, and drops the Wildcats to 0-3 in the Big Ten. With the win, Illinois improves to 10-3 on the year, 1-2 in the conference.
Illinois flew out of the gate, opening up an immediate seven-point lead, 8-1, to force an early Northwestern timeout. The Wildcats brought the lead back down to four, 10-6, on a block by Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) and Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee), but the Illini extended it back out to nine, 17-8, and NU used its second timeout of the game.
Illinois stretched its lead further, earning its first game point at 29-16. Building momentum for the second game, Northwestern reeled off five-consecutive points helped by a Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) kill and an ace by Lauren Greenwood (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood) to make the score 29-21 and cause the Illini to use a timeout. The visitors scored the next point out of the break to close game one, 30-21.
With the score tied, 6-6, in game two, Paulus killed two balls and Greenwood notched her second ace of the match to give NU a 9-6 advantage, and Illinois elected to call a timeout. The Illini came right back to take the lead themselves, 15-13, and force a Wildcats timeout.
The teams traded points back and forth until Illinois inched itself out to a four-point advantage, 24-20, and NU used another timeout. From there, the Illini powered their way to a 30-23 game two victory.
Northwestern came out of the locker room fired up, forcing an early game-three timeout from Illinois when a service ace from freshman Kate Nobilio (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) and a pair of kills from senior Cassie McLaughlin (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) gave the Wildcats a 7-3 lead.
Northwestern pushed that lead out to eight, 14-6, but Illinois came storming back to pull within one, 15-14, and NU head coach Keylor Chan called a timeout. The game remained close the rest of the way, but Illinois pulled it out, 30-27, to sweep the match.
Paulus and Julie Purcell (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) both led Northwestern with 10 kills, while McLaughlin had a .750 hitting percentage (7-1-8). Nobilio recorded a match-best 16 digs, including nine in the first game.
Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29 against Iowa at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The game will be televised on ComcastSportsNet Chicago on a tape-delay basis, airing at 3 p.m. CT the following day, Saturday, Sept. 30. NOTE: That broadcast time is a change from the originally publicized time of noon CT Saturday.
