Volleyball
If the UW women's volleyball team (18-9, 10-6 Big Ten) had any hopes of winning the Big Ten before this weekend, they were smashed with a two-loss trip in Illinois. Wisconsin was defeated 24-30, 30-23, 35-33, 30-26 by Northwestern (17-11, 8-8) in Evanston Friday. They followed up the loss by going down 30-15, 30-26, 34-32 at the hands of the Illinois Fighting Illini (21-5, 13-4).
UW has now lost three straight matches, with the last two coming against conference opponents. The last time Wisconsin lost consecutive Big Ten matches was in 1996. With the losses, the team moves down to fourth place in the conference.
Against Northwestern, Wisconsin was once-again led by sophomore outside hitter Aubrey Meierotto, who had a match-high 18 kills. Two Badgers, senior outside hitter Lisa Zukowski and sophomore middle blocker Sheila Shaw, finished with 13 kills. It was the Wildcats who held the advantage overall in kills with 69, compared to Wisconsin's 66. Leading the way for Northwestern was senior middle blocker Erica Lange who also had 18 kills in the victory.
The Badgers' rough weekend continued as they traveled south to Champaign and were swept by No. 25 Illinois. Against Illinois' big front line, UW struggled offensively. Shaw was the lone Badger to record double-digit kills, with 10. Illinois hit .248 percent, but it was their defense that won the match. Wisconsin hit just .112 percent and committed 31 errors.
Women's hockey
In a match-up of top 10 teams, the No. 7 Wisconsin women's hockey team (5-3 WCHA, 9-3 overall) swept No. 10 Minnesota State (4-2, 7-3) in Mankato.
Friday's game was all Badgers, with the visitors shutting out Minnesota State and out-shooting their opponents 37-9. Wisconsin made good on its chances and converted them into a 3-0 victory. The Badgers' first goal came from the stick of junior forward Jackie Friesen with six minutes to play in the first period. In the second period Wisconsin's lead was increased to three as senior forward Karen Rickard added another insurance goal. Freshman goalie Christine Dufour was impressive between the pipes for Wisconsin and made nine saves in her second shut-out of the season.
Saturday's contest saw more Wisconsin goals, but Minnesota State added some scoring of their own. Wisconsin again out-shot MSU, winning the battle 39-26 on the way to a 4-3 victory.
Just two minutes into the game, UW freshman forward Lindsay Macy opened up the scoring. Badger captain junior defender Carla Macleod recorded an assist on the goal, the first of her three in the game. Following a UW penalty, MSU's Autumn Conway scored the tying goal on the power play.
Five minutes later, UW found themselves trailing for the first time in the series as sophomore forward Devon Nichols put MSU in front. But the lead proved short-lived for Minnesota State and UW responded by scoring the next three goals. UW freshman defender Bobbi-Jo Slusar beat MSU goalie Shari Vogt to tie the game. Senior forward Meghan Hunter scored in the second period before freshman forward Meaghan Mikkelson put the Badgers in front for good later that period.
MSU's Melanie Salatino scored midway through the third period, but they were unable to add another, despite pulling their goalie at the end of the game.
-Joe Hasler
