No. 11 Volleyball Defeats Northwestern 3-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/5/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 5, 2001
Final Stats
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The 11th-ranked Ohio State (13-0 overall, 5-0 Big Ten) women’s volleyball squad defeated Northwestern (6-5, 3-2) in four games (27-30, 30-21, 30-15, 30-19) Friday night in McGaw Fieldhouse, in front of 453 fans. Buckeye Stacey Gordon (Fr., Oshawa, Ontario) had a match-high 20 kills in the OSU win with Suzie Stiling (Jr., Glenview, Ill.) adding 15 and Erin Baker (Sr., Elmhurst, Ill) 10. Kelli Meyer (Jr., Madison, Wis.), Erika Lange (So., Orland Park, Ill.) and Jill Buschur (So., New Bremen, Ohio) had seven kills each for Northwestern. OSU’s 3-1 victory keeps the Buckeyes undefeated on the season, heading into the Big Ten showdown Saturday night in Madison, Wis., with No. 6 Wisconsin (11-2, 5-0), a 3-0 (30-23, 30-19, 30-21) winner over No. 10 Penn State (9-3, 3-2) Friday night.
Ohio State opened game one, from a one-all tie, with five straight kills to go ahead 6-1. Northwestern tied the game at 15 with a block by Drew Robertson (Fr., Long Beach, Calif.). After ties at 18 and 20, the Wildcats took a 21-20 lead off an Ohio State serving error. At 25-all, a Molly Kamp (So., Stevensville, Mich.) ace serve put Northwestern ahead, 26-25. A block by Robertson expanded the lead to two at 27-25. A Shelly Draeger (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis.) kill cut the Wildcat lead to 27-26. A block by Lange and Robertson made the lead two at 28-26. A Baker kill cut the lead back to one at 28-27. Sarah Ballog’s (Jr. Colo De Caza, Calif) kill set game point for Northwestern at 29-27 and a Buschur kill ended the game at 30-27, Northwestern. The Wildcats hit .310 for the game to .333 for Ohio State.
Northwestern held the early lead (7-5) in game two. At eight-all, Nikki Cisco (Sr., Dublin, Ohio) served four Buckeye points to give the Buckeyes a 12-8 advantage. Cisco collected the first two points off ace serves while a block by Stiling and Trine Melsether (Fr., Aalesund, Norway) and a solo by Stiling completed the run. The Buckeyes held a 21-15 lead as Northwestern called a time-out. Gordon responded with two ace serves and with two Wildcat errors took the OSU margin to 25-16. A Stiling kill set game point at 29-19 and a Wildcat error closed the game at 30-19 for the Buckeyes. Ohio State hit .154 for the game to .030 for Northwestern.
Ohio State held a 2-0 margin in game three when a Lange kill cut the lead to 2-1. The Buckeyes scored the next seven points with two kills by Stiling and Gordon, two ace serves from Melsether and a Wildcat error. Ohio State held the lead, going on to win 30-15. The Buckeyes hit .440 for the game to -.045 for the Wildcats.
In game four, with the score tied at four, a kill by Kamp and an OSU error gave Northwestern a 6-4 lead. Ohio State scored the next six points to take a 10-6 advantage. Kills by Stiling and Gordon and four Wildcat errors made up the run. At 10-7, kills by Gordon and Baker pushed the lead to 12-7. At 16-12, OSU, the Buckeyes scored six straight points off two kills by Stiling, a Gordon kill, a Melsether ace and two Northwestern errors to take a 22-12 lead. Northwestern was able to cut the margin to seven at 27-20 with an ace serve by Kamp. Stiling responded with a kill (28-20) and a Wildcat error set match point at 29-20. A Robertson kill stopped the attempt but Cisco’s kill closed the game at 30-21, ending the match in a 3-1 Ohio State victory. OSU hit .333 for the game to -.059 for NU.
For the match, Ohio State hit .317 to .059 for Northwestern. The Wildcats hit -.135 for the final three games after hitting .310 in game one. The Buckeye had a 63 to 36 advantage in kills. OSU outserved Northwestern 12 to four with Gordon and Melsether collecting career-highs of four aces each. The Buckeyes had a 41-30 margin in digs with Katie Virtue (Jr., St. Charles, Ill.) recording a match-high nine. The Wildcats outblocked OSU 13 to nine with Lange recording four solos and five assists for the Wildcats.
