DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team fed off the early energy from a sellout crowd at Victor E. Court Saturday night to see the Huskies battle the #2 Wisconsin Badgers. However, the Badgers proved they are as good as their ranking suggests with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-18) win over the Huskies.
 
"I'm very thankful that our team got this experience tonight," said head coach Ray Gooden following NIU's final non-conference game of the regular season. "It's always great to be able to play against a top-level team, but to get a chance to do it at home for our fans it's very special."
 
It was also special for players like redshirt-senior Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville), who got a chance to take on the big school from her home state.
 
"It was super fun tonight," Karlen said. "We were able to learn a lot about ourselves and hopefully take that into conference play."
 
NIU (6-4) won the first two points of the night, getting a kill from Ella Mihacevich (Brunswick, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) and a Badgers error. Wisconsin quickly tied the first set 2-2, and the two teams traded points up to 9-9 when a Katie Jablonski (Elburn, Ill./New Hampshire) kill survived a replay challenge to give NIU a 10-9 lead. Wisconsin quickly took back the lead, winning 10 of the next 11 points to take a 19-11 lead. NIU would get as close as six, but the Badgers took the opening set 25-16.
 
"For us to play well against any team, we're going to have to do a good job on offense and side out, then find a way to manufacture points with our block and defense," Gooden said. "We were doing a real nice job until that little momentum spot with the replay, hitting edges and getting touches to keep points alive and working hard in transition."
 
Wisconsin (8-0) hit .458 in the opening set and followed that up with a .419 mark in the second set to take it 25-11 and go up 2-0 in the match. The Huskies had an early lead in the third when kills from Jablonski and Mihacevich put NIU up 2-1. The Badgers, once again, showed their mettle and ran off a 6-1 run to take a 7-3 lead on a pair of Julia Orzol aces. The Huskies hung with Wisconsin and traded points up to 12-8 when a Jablonski kill got NIU within three at 12-9. With the score 13-10, the Badgers went on a 5-1 run to take an 18-11 lead on a block by Anna Smrek and Sydney Hilley. The two sides traded points the rest of the way with Wisconsin taking the third 25-18 and the match 3-0.
 
Jablonski led NIU with 12 kills, hitting .267 for the match. Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) had 22 assists and a team-high nine digs. Lauren Jardine led Wisconsin and all players with 14 kills.
 
NIU opens Mid-American Conference play Sept. 24-25 with a two-match series at Central Michigan. First serve on Friday night is set for 5 p.m. CT.
 
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