Wisconsin showed its physical dominance early and often in the match. The Badgers finished game one with an 11-4 run, tallying six blocks and committing only four hitting errors in the game. Overall, Wisconsin out-hit, out-blocked and out-dug the Lions, yet the Badgers still came up short.
"They blocked better than we did," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "They did everything better than we did. They're going to look at the stat sheet and say, 'How did we lose?' "
Where the Badgers lost the match was on the serve, which was the only area in which Penn State had the advantage. The Lions recorded seven aces and had only three errors. On the flip side, the Badgers committed 13 service errors; the 13-point difference was key as the combined margin of victory for games two through four was just nine points. The Penn State serve was led by junior libero Kaleena Walters, who had four aces.
"Wisconsin was serving tough. They were serving very deep a lot. That lends itself into missing a lot of serves," Walters said. "Tonight, I was serving to the person I had to be serving, so it just kinda worked out. My serve is not the greatest."
After surviving Wisconsin, Penn State came back on Saturday and handled Northwestern with ease, winning in three games (30-17, 30-25, 30-8). The Lions dominated the Wildcats from start to finish, ending with a .400 hitting percentage for the match. Senior outside hitter Sydnie Nadeau, who has put her game into high gear after Rose called out the seniors a week ago, led the Lions and finished the weekend with two double-doubles (17 kills and 13 digs on Friday; 15 kills and 17 digs on Saturday).
The Lions played with a lot more emotion this weekend than they had during any other weekend all season.
Penn State needs to keep playing with that extra fire it found this weekend if it hopes to repeat as Big Ten champions.
