Ohio State women’s volleyball ready for showdown with No. 2 Wisconsin

Chris Slack
Fri, 21 Nov 2014 05:56:39 +0000
Sports, Volleyball, Buckeyes, Geoff Carlston, Luna Tsujimoto, Ohio State volleyball

OSU junior outside hitter Elizabeth Campbell (14) attempts to spike the ball past Iowa junior outside hitter Julianne Blomberg (15) during a Nov. 19 match at St. John Arena. OSU won, 3-0. Credit: Ed Momot / For The Lantern

After defeating Iowa in three sets on Wednesday, the Ohio State women’s volleyball team looks to continue on the winning side as it’s set to face No. 2 Wisconsin.

The Badgers (25-2, 15-1) visit OSU (19-10, 10-7) having won their last 16 matches, including 13 sweeps.

Badger coach Kelly Sheffield is in his second season at Wisconsin and has a career record of 53-12 with the team.

In his tenure with the Badgers, Sheffield is 3-0 against the Buckeyes. Although he lost to the Buckeyes once while he was coaching at Dayton in 2010.

OSU Coach Geoff Carlston said that going into Friday’s match, both teams won’t get much rest, so he’s interested in how the match will play out.

“Neither team is going to have time to practice and game plan,” Carlston said.

He added that while the Buckeyes are 10-1 at home this season, the team has to step up and be aggressive in order to win.

“In this conference, it’s who shows up,” he said. “We need to show up and expect to battle.”

The Badgers played on Wednesday and defeated No. 10 Illinois in four sets. Wisconsin’s only losses of the season came back-to-back against No. 5 Washington in five sets and then-No. 3 Penn State in a sweep.

OSU freshman defensive specialist Luna Tsujimoto said the OSU off-blockers’ play against the Hawkeyes has to carry into Friday’s match.

“If we do that, I think we’ll have a great chance of beating them,” Tsujimoto said.

The Badgers will be led by junior libero Taylor Morey, who ranks first in the Big Ten in digs per set with 5.18 and sophomore setter Lauren Carlini, who ranks second in assists per set at 11.48.

Following Friday’s match, the Buckeyes are scheduled to play their final regular season home match Nov. 26, against Minnesota. OSU lost its first match of the season to the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis, Minn., in five sets Sept. 24.

Both contests are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.