'Cats Drop Conference Opener to No. 23 Trojans'Cats Drop Conference Opener to No. 23 Trojans
Northwestern Athletics

'Cats Drop Conference Opener to No. 23 Trojans

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern volleyball (7-5, 0-1 B1G) fell 3-0 to the No. 23 USC Trojans (7-4, 1-0 B1G) on Thursday night in Welsh-Ryan Arena, dropping its Big Ten opener 25-20, 25-19, 25-16.

Mara Å tiglic led the offense for the third straight match with nine kills on a .333 attack percentage. Both Å tiglic and first-year Maya Stillwell collected three blocks, while Lauren Dignan anchored the back row with 12 digs.

How It Happened

SET 1 | Bella Bullington and Campbell Paris opened action with early kills for the Wildcats, helping Northwestern to a 5-3 advantage. Strong blocking kept the ‘Cats in play, and the set remained tied as late as 11-11. After the midway point, however, the Trojans gained some separation behind a strong performance from the service line. USC racked up five aces in the set, eventually boosting them to a 25-20 set-one victory.

SET 2 | The two sides traded errors to open the second set, keeping things close through a 7-7 tie. After USC took the lead, back-to-back kills from Štiglic once again knotted the score up, this time at 12-12. While the ‘Cats battled, a late 4-0 run by the Trojans put USC up 22-17, and another string of Northwestern errors handed the second set to the visitors, 25-19.

SET 3 | Set three was the most lopsided yet, with the Trojans racking up 17 kills compared to just eight by the Wildcats. The best blocking team in the Big Ten, USC also used five rejections in the frame to complete the sweep. After a kill from Ellie Stiernagle provided the ‘Cats’ first point of the set, the Trojans grabbed the lead and never trailed again, limiting Northwestern to a .051 attacking percentage en route to a 25-16 victory to finish off a 3-0 sweep.

Game Notes

  • Å tiglic led the team in kills for the seventh time this season.
  • Dignan extended her double-digit dig streak to ten straight matches, bringing her to 181 on the season, which is just three shy of her total from all of last year.

Up Next

The 'Cats will continue Big Ten action at home on Saturday, when they are set to host the UCLA Bruins at 7 p.m. CT at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Action will be streamed on B1G+.