Michigan
15-6, 5-5Big Ten
Wisconsin
13-5, 7-3Big Ten
Michigan Pushes Wisconsin to Brink in Four-Game Loss
10/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Sophomores Erin Cobler (Dexter, Mich./Dexter) and Danielle Pflum (Martinsville, Ind./Martinsville) led four University of Michigan volleyball Wolverines in double-digit kills with 15 apiece, pushing Wisconsin to the limit in a 3-1 (29-31, 34-32, 23-30, 20-30) loss Saturday night (Oct. 23) at Cliff Keen Arena. Senior Jennifer Gandolph (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) finished with 14 kills and a season-high 19 digs for her second straight double-double, while senior Lisa Gamalski (Milwaukee, Wis./Catholic Memorial) finished one dig shy of a double-double with 10 kills and nine digs, adding 54 assists.
The loss drops Michigan to 15-6 and 5-5 in the Big Ten, while Wisconsin improves to 13-5 and 7-3 in the conference.
Down one game to none in game two, Michigan found itself behind by as many as five, trailing 21-16 until Gamalski served for five points in a row, knotting it at 21-21. Wisconsin edged ahead and stayed in front until Cobler served for three points in a row, tying it at 27-27. The teams traded points, knotting it up at 28-28 and 29-29, before senior Sarah Allen's (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg) ace gave U-M game point, up 30-29, but the Badgers rebounded to tie. Sophomore Megan Bowman (St. John, Ind./Lake Central) gave Michigan game point again, but Wisconsin fought back to tie it, 31-31. Cobler struck next with a kill, Wisconsin replied, and Cobler fired back with her sixth kill of the game, giving U-M a 33-32 lead. Wisconsin committed an attack error on the next point and Michigan tied the match up one game apiece.
Wisconsin took game three after turning a tight 15-14 lead into a 25-19 gap and winning 30-23. Up two games to one, the Badgers maintained their momentum in the deciding game, once again morphing a 16-16 tie into a 23-20 gap and then exploding on a 7-0 run to end the game, 30-23.
In game one, Michigan trailed down the stretch but turned a 25-20 deficit into a 29-29 tie after a hard kill on the outside by Pflum knotted it up. Wisconsin called timeout and promptly scored the next two points to give the Badgers the early edge.
Michigan travels to Michigan State for a midweek match on Wednesday (Oct. 27) at 7 p.m. for the final match of the State Pride Banner series. The match will be broadcast on Comcast Sports Local on tape delay. Then the Wolverines return home to face nationally ranked Illinois on Saturday (Oct. 30) at 7 p.m. in Cliff Keen Arena.
Q U O T E S
U-M Head Coach Mark Rosen
On tonight's decision ... "Wisconsin is a good team, but we didn't do ourselves any favors by being inconsistent. I think the result is as much them being good as us playing poorly at times."
On the team's play in the past few weeks ... "We've been more inconsistent lately. When we're good, we're good, but when we're off we can be bad. I think we can be a little inconsistent in some matches over the course of the season and still win by sheer talent, but our highs and lows are too dramatic to win consistently against some of the top teams in our conference. We need to even out our highs and lows and play consistently night after night."
Sophomore Erin Cobler
What were the main factors in tonight's match ... "We played inconsistently tonight. We can see that we have the talent to play with Wisconsin, but we are off right now. We need to turn it back on like we had it at the beginning of the season. Wisconsin is a similar team to us and they just came out stronger tonight."
Freshman Stesha Selsky
What led to tonight's loss ... "Like Erin (Cobler) said, we were inconsistent. We are a talented team. The more games we play the more experience we should gain and the better we should become."
N O T E S
Sophomore Megan Bowman recorded four block assists against Wisconsin, moving her into 13th place all-time at Michigan with 209 block assists. Bowman has 234 total blocks in her career.
Michigan is 10-2 at home this season, needing one more win at Cliff Keen Arena to tie the program record for most home wins in a season.
Michigan has had three straight matches with at least 1,000 fans, averaging 1,270 fans per home match in 2004.
Senior Jennifer Gandolph had her eighth double-double of the season against Wisconsin, recording 14 kills and a season-high 19 digs. Gandolph now has 60 double-doubles in her career.
Freshman Stesha Selsky had a career-high 16 digs against Wisconsin, bettering her previous best of 15 that she set twice this season, most recently against Notre Dame on Sept. 28.
Freshman Lyndsay Miller recorded the 100th block of her career, giving her exactly 100 blocks in her young career.
Contact: Richard Retyi (734) 763-4423
