Sept. 29, 2001

Final Stats

Champaign, Ill. - The University of Illinois volleyball team dropped a three-game decision to No. 7 Wisconsin, Saturday evening in front of 1,246 fans at Huff Hall, falling by the score of 19-30, 24-30, 21-30.

The Fighting Illini fell to 7-4 overall, 1-3 in the Big Ten, while Wisconsin improved to 10-2 overall and remained in first place in conference play with a 4-0 record.

After defeating Northwestern on Friday, Illinois looked to make it two in-a-row, but couldn't find the right answers to shut down the hot-hitting Badgers. Wisconsin came out firing in game one, hitting .415 as a team to earn a 30-19 victory. Despite the tough loss, Illinois didn't let down in game two, battling Wisconsin point-for-point before a 7-1 run by the Badgers turned a 23-23 tie into a 30-24 defeat for Illinois.

Wisconsin outside hitters Sherisa Livingston and Lisa Zukowski were too much for Illinois on this night as each registered a match-high 18 kills and hit .323 and .405 respectively.

Game three saw Wisconsin jump out to an early 11-3 lead, only to have Illinois fight back and cut the Badger lead to 13-9. The Illini could get no closer though as they dropped the final game 30-21.

For the second night in-a-row, junior middle blocker Lisa Argabright led the Illini in kills, recording eight against the Badgers. Senior outside hitter Lydia Gard also played well for Illinois registering seven kills, while hitting a team-best .316 for the match.

The Illini will look to get back in the win column on Oct. 5, when they travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at 7 p.m.