Nov. 17, 2007

Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS -- Northwestern traveled to Minnesota Saturday night for its final Big Ten road match of the season, falling in a sweep to the Golden Gophers, 30-25, 30-25, 30-27.

The loss drops Northwestern to 17-12 overall on the season, 8-10 in the conference. Minnesota improves to 17-11 win its win, 10-8 in the Big Ten.

Northwestern held the lead for the first half of game one until a 7-1 Minnesota run gave the Gophers a 19-15 advantage, causing a Wildcats' timeout midway through the streak. Northwestern immediately responded with a 5-1 run of its own to knot the score at 20 on a Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) ace.

UM grabbed the lead back, 23-20, but again NU came back to tie, this time making the score 25-25 on a Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) kill. The Gophers responded with the next five points to win game one, 30-25.

Game two ended in the same score, but in a completely opposite way. Minnesota jumped out to a huge advantage, eventually taking an 11-point lead, 20-9. Northwestern whittled its way back into the game, falling in the end by only five, 30-25.

In game three, the teams played neck-and-neck until Minnesota inched out to a two-point lead, 21-19, forcing a Northwestern timeout. A Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) solo block a few points later again tied the game, 22-22. Again Minnesota took a two-point lead, 26-24, but this time after NU's timeout, the Wildcats were unable to come back in a 30-27 third-game loss.

Anderson led NU with 11 kills while adding 15 digs for her ninth-consecutive double-double. Sophomore libero Kate Nobilio (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) had a match-best 21 digs.

Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. CT Friday, Nov. 23, against Indiana at Welsh-Ryan Arena to begin its final homestand of the year.