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'Cats Fall to Wolverines, 3-0'Cats Fall to Wolverines, 3-0

'Cats Fall to Wolverines, 3-0

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern volleyball (7-13, 0-9 B1G) dropped a 3-0 match to the visiting Michigan Wolverines (13-7, 4-5 B1G) on Thursday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, falling 25-18, 25-21, 25-14.

Mara Štiglic paced the Wildcats’ attack with nine kills, while Bella Bullington was close behind with eight. First-year Maya Stillwell hit over .400 for the second straight match, racking up seven kills on 12 swings over three sets of action.

The ‘Cats’ defense combined for seven blocks, led by Stillwell and Stiglic, who contributed three apiece.

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Maya Stillwell is hitting a team-best .333 this season. If that held through the end of the season, it would be the best hitting percentage by a Northwestern player with at least 100 attacks since Leilani Dodson in 2023 (.340).

How It Happened

SET 1 | After a back-and-forth start to the match, Michigan was the first team to gain an advantage, using a 4-0 run to take a 9-5 lead and force a Northwestern timeout. The teams traded a few more points before Northwestern put together a 4-0 run of its own. With Ellie Stiernagle behind the line, kills from Stillwell, Bullington and Campbell Paris put the ‘Cats back on top, 12-10. Despite a timeout by the Wolverines, the Wildcats maintained their advantage past the midway point. Michigan finally tied things up again at 15-all, then - after a few more quick lead changes - used three straight aces from Sydney Schnichels to expand the lead to 20-16. Northwestern could not bounce back from there, and the Wolverines took set one by a score of 25-18.

SET 2 | Like set one, the second set stayed close through the early going. Stillwell recorded two quick kills to get things going, then Stiglic accounted for the next four Northwestern points with a strong attacking effort. Back-to-back kills from Bullington brought the ‘Cats within a point of the Wolverines, 11-10, but it was all Michigan from there. Bullington and Stiglic would both contribute six kills in the second set, but it wasn’t enough to match Michigan, and the Wolverines took a 25-21 victory to extend their lead in the match to 2-0.

SET 3 | Michigan was dominant from start to finish in the third set. The Wolverines opened by taking seven of the first nine points to force a Northwestern timeout, then a 4-0 scoring run expanded their lead to 11-5. The ‘Cats put together another scoring run of their own late in the set on Cate Schnell’s serve, but it wasn’t enough to come all the way back. Michigan wrapped up the sweep in Evanston with a 25-14 set-three victory.

Game Notes

  • Stillwell collected seven kills on .417 hitting, marking her second match in a row and her sixth this season with four or more kills on a .400 or better attack percentage.
  • Stiernagle’s 25 assists against the Wolverines bumped her season total to 691, nine shy of reaching 700. She would become just the eighth first-year to reach that mark in Division I volleyball this season.
  • Stiernagle also recorded her 13th ace of the season, taking over the team lead in that category.

Up Next

Northwestern will hit the road to close out its weekend at No. 12 Purdue on Sunday. The ‘Cats and the Boilermakers will battle on Big Ten Network at 3 p.m. CT in West, Lafayette, Ind.