Women's volleyball splits weekend with early win, late loss

It was another weekend that began with a victory and ended in defeat for the women's volleyball team. The Hoosiers defeated Northwestern in five games (30-21,25-30,30-27,28-30,15-9) Friday and fell to Big Ten powerhouse Wisconsin in three games (30-26,30-12,30-21) Saturday.\nThe weekend's matches left the Hoosiers with a conference record of 4-10 and an overall record of 7-15.\nFriday's match up with Northwestern wasn't easy for the Hoosiers, who lost to the Wildcats 3-1 earlier this year in Bloomington. IU won the opening game 30-21. After a timeout was called toward the end of the second game, Northwestern dominated, scoring three points and claiming a game two victory 30-25.\nGame three was closer than game two and ended with the Hoosiers on top by a score of 30-27. The Hoosiers now had two games won, with one more to win that would clinch the victory. Game four ended in Northwestern's favor 30-28, which put the Hoosiers in a position they knew well from the previous weekend in a match against Minnesota. This time the Hoosiers pulled out a game five win 15-9. Leading the Hoosiers, and winning game five with her 23rd kill for the night was freshman Christina Archibald.\nThe victory left the Wildcats 4-9 in the conference and 8-12 overall.\nThe Hoosiers traveled to Wisconsin Saturday to take on the Badgers, who also defeated IU at home earlier in the year. Wisconsin still stands at No. 1 in the Big Ten with a conference record of 13-1 and overall record of 19-3. Penn State has been the only Big Ten team to take out the Badgers so far this season. \nGame one was the Badgers 30-26 despite passing errors on Wisconsin's side of the net. Wisconsin held the lead almost all of the second game and once the score reached 20-6 in Wisconsin's favor, IU called a timeout. Although the Hoosiers tried to rally, Wisconsin proved why they are No. 1 in the Big Ten and won the game 30-12. Wisconsin finished off the Hoosiers 30-21 in game three.\nArchibald led the Hoosiers once again Saturday with nine kills and nine digs. Following close behind was sophomore Melissa Brewer with eight kills.