The ‘Cats (7-18, 0-14 B1G) dropped both games of their west coast road trip over the weekend, falling 3-0 to No. 18 Washington (18-5, B1G 9-5) and 3-1 to No. 12 Oregon (20-4, 11-3 B1G).
Going into this weekend, Northwestern was already eliminated from the Big Ten tournament, but it aimed to continue fighting for its first conference win of the season against two top-20 teams.
Between the two games, Bella Bullington was the star of the front court with 28 kills. Mara Stiglic had 16. In the backcourt,
the ‘Cats digs leader was, as usual, Lauren Dignan, who racked up 21 digs throughout the two games. Dignan was also the only Wildcat with multiple service aces.
On Friday, the ‘Cats took on the No. 18 Huskies. Northwestern got off to a strong start with an 11-8 lead in the first set. In the opening stretch, Štiglic had three kills while Bullington had two. After 11-8, the Huskies won four straight points. And despite Northwestern tying it up three more times, Washington never gave the ’Cats another lead in the set, winning it 25-17.
The second set had a similar trajectory, although a smaller Northwestern lead and less time in the lead. Once Washington regained the lead at 9-8, they only allowed seven Northwestern points in the rest of the set. Despite an impressive five kills in the set by senior Campbell Paris, Northwestern couldn’t overcome the four service aces from Washington or capitalize on their six attack errors.
The third set was the strongest for the ‘Cats, but they didn’t have enough gas in the tank to win it. Everyone on the Northwestern front line pitched in to get the score to 21-20, with five different ‘Cats registering kills in this set. But after 21-20, Northwestern only got one more point off a service error, giving Washington the third set win with a score of 25-22.
After the straight-set loss, Northwestern went south to take on No. 12 Oregon (20-4 B1G 11-3).
Oregon surged ahead early in the first set taking a 16-9 lead. Opponent errors helped out Northwestern again though, and with six points off errors from the Ducks, Northwestern was able to make the set competitive late. It came within four points with a score of 24-20 before Alanah Clemente got a kill for the Ducks to earn them the set.
The ‘Cats built on their momentum from the end of the first set in set two. Neither team got a lead of greater than two points in the entire set and the back and forth scoring went all the way to end when Northwestern went up 24-23. With the chance to win their first set of the weekend, Alaina Pollard got a big kill for the Ducks, tying it up. After an attack error, the Ducks were up 25-24 but needed to win by two. Fortunately for them, the Wildcats had another attack error and the Ducks went up two sets to nothing.
Finally the ‘Cats found a consistent rhythm, trading points in the third set until the score 13-12. Then, the ‘Cats popped off for four points in a row, with Bullington and Stillwell responsible for two points each. The ‘Cats ran with their five point lead and were able to expand it to seven by the end of the set, which they won 25-18, netting their first set of the weekend.
But the ‘Cats’ hopes of a first Big Ten win came crashing down in the fourth set. Only twice in the whole set was there a Northwestern point that wasn’t immediately followed by two or more Oregon points. The Ducks dominated the set 25-11 and sent Northwestern on a long flight home, still winless in Big Ten play.
