Sept. 13, 2002

Box Score

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Northwestern women's volleyball team did everything it could to put an end to Notre Dame's 25-match home winning streak on Friday night at the Joyce Center. A valiant effort still wasn't quite enough, though, as the host Fighting Irish finished off the Wildcats in three games 30-28, 30-26, 30-21 in front of 1,490 spectators.

Game one was a tight affair throughout with the Irish holding the biggest lead of the game of four at 22-18. However, the Wildcats scored the next three points to close to within 22-21.

Northwestern trailed 25-24 and was serving when Iwona Lodzik's (Tarnobrzeg, Poland) serve that appeared to be an ace was called out. Notre Dame used that point and the next two to forge a 28-25 advantage.

But the Wildcats scored the next three points to even the game at 28-28. Following a Notre Dame timeout, the Wildcats had an opportunity to serve for the match. But a service error and an unforced hitting error by the Cats gave the host the opening game.

The tight win propelled the Irish in the second game as they jumped out of the gates to a 5-1 lead. The resilient Wildcats responded to score the next four points to tie the match 5-5.

The hosts surged ahead scoring seven of the next nine points to lead 12-7. The lead grew to 18-12 before Northwestern rallied back to within 21-20.

Notre Dame's lead remained one at 26-25 before they closed out the second game by scoring four of the final five points.

The Irish carried the momentum of the wins in the first two games to complete the sweep in game three. Northwestern trailed by only three at 21-18 but scored seven of the next eight points to take a 28-19 edge before eventually closing out the match.

Junior middle blocker Erika Lange (Orland Park, Ill) led the Wildcats with a game-high 16 kills and six total blocks. With the victory, Notre Dame's record improves to 6-2 while the Wildcats fall to 4-3.

Northwestern returns to action in the Golden Dome Invitational on Saturday when it takes on No. 10 Pepperdine and Loyola (Md.).

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