Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Loyola Chicago
Northwestern Advances to Chicago Challenge Championship, 3-0
8/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 24, 2007
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern opened the 2007 season at home with a resounding sweep of Loyola (Chicago) Friday night to advance to the championship game of the Chicago Challenge, 3-0 (30-23, 30-12, 30-15).
The Wildcats won their season-opening match for the sixth time in eight years under head coach Keylor Chan, including wins in the last four in row. Northwestern will face Illinois-Chicago at 7 p.m. in Saturday's championship match after UIC defeated DePaul, 3-1, in its opening-round contest.
After both teams got off to slow starts in the first game (the Ramblers out-hit the Wildcats .086-.049 in a 30-23 NU win), NU came unglued to hold Loyola to sub-.000 hitting percentages in games two and three. Loyola finished the match with an -.019 team hitting percentage.
The match marked the first time Northwestern has held an opponent to a negative hitting percentage since Sept. 14, 2002, when -- coincidentally -- NU held Loyola College (Md.) to a -.070 hitting percentage in a 3-0 Wildcats' sweep.
Northwestern opened an eight-point lead in game one, 17-9, after a quick 3-0 spurt that included a Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) kill and a Kate Nobilio (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) ace. Loyola came back to close the gap to two, 22-20, after a trio of Wildcats' hitting errors, but a kill from freshman Brittani Gray (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) sparked an 8-3 run resulting in the 30-23 NU win.
The Wildcats shook off the rust of game one to absolutely pound the ball in game two, racking up a .485 team hitting percentage and building a monstrous 18-4 lead in the game. Sophomore Ariel Baxterbeck (Menlo Park, Calif./Castilleja) presided over a 7-0 NU run that included two kills each from Paulus and senior Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier), then Anderson served a 5-0 run featuring two kills from junior Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) during NU's opening salvo.
The Wildcats would cruise to a 30-12 win, their biggest single-game victory since bruising Brown, 30-10, in the first game of their match on Sept. 17, 2005.
Game three was closer from the beginning, but Northwestern used mini three- and four-point runs throughout the stanza to pull away and win, 30-15.
Anderson led Northwestern with 12 kills in the match, giving her 1,102 for her career and pushing her into 14th place on the Wildcats' career kills list. Paulus added 10 kills and tied Nobilio with a team-high 16 digs for a double-double. Nobilio also contributed a team-best four aces to match her career high set last season against Purdue (Nov. 17).
Senior Stephanie Jurivich (LaGrange, Ill./St. Ignatius) had 36 assists for NU, which hit .255 overall in the match. Senior Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) hit a team-best .417, killing six balls on 12 swings with one error.
Illinois-Chicago 3, DePaul 1
DePaul whipped UIC in the first game of their match, 30-17, but the Flames rebounded to take the next three games and advance to the championship game of the Chicago Challenge. The Blue Demons will face the Ramblers in the consolation match at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, August 25, before Northwestern and UIC meet at 7 p.m. in the championship.
Northwestern is hosting the Chicago Challenge for the first time since its inaugural edition in 1995.
