The Northwestern Wildcats fell in straight sets to 20th ranked Minnesota (7-4, 1-2 B1G) on Thursday night. The ‘Cats drop to 7-7 overall while losing their third of three games in conference play.
The ‘Cats allowed three straight Gopher kills in the first set. After a pair of four-point runs for each team, Minnesota rattled off seven straight to make the score 15-6. The margin barely moved to the end of the set, which finished 25-14.
In set two, the Wildcats came out swinging with two kills from Campbell
Paris and Bella Bullington. The Golden Gophers put down a kill and a service ace in retaliation. Northwestern by as much as three before five points in a row from Minnesota, including back-to-back kills from first year Elena Hoecke, put the Gophers up 8-6.
The Wildcats picked up five more points in the set in between 5-0 and 8-0 scoring runs from Minnesota, the latter of which would end the set, 25-11.
The third set was more of the same. Northwestern’s defense, in conjunction with three Minnesota service errors, kept the ‘Cats in the set early. Then, the defense came to a screeching halt as Minnesota went on a 14-1 run, propelling it to a 25-9 set three win and the sweep.
The Wildcats were led offensively by Bullington, Paris and Mara Štiglic, who all earned at least five kills. Defensively, sophomore Lauren Dignan carried the load in the back row with 13 digs. In the front, the only solo block came from senior Lily Wagner, while the rest of the team totaled six block assists.
The Golden Gophers were led out of the back by the two McKennas: sophomore Garr and fifth-year Wucherer combined for eight of Minnesota’s nine aces. Junior setter Stella Swenson seamlessly facilitated the front line attack, assisting on 38% of the team’s points while finding two kills of her own. Wucherer went into double digits with ten terminations, while five other Golden Gophers logged three of more each.
Collectively, Minnesota converted on 50% of its attacks, a stark contrast to Northwestern’s 22.6% conversion rate. The Wildcats finished with a -0.036 hitting percentage as their 22 errors eclipsed their 19 kills on the night. Northwestern, the no. 1 team in the conference in service aces in 2025, failed to register a single one of them on Thursday night.
The Wildcats will look ahead to Saturday, when they will head home to Welsh-Ryan Arena to host Ohio State at 7 p.m. CT on Big Ten Plus.
