The No. 9 Wisconsin volleyball team swept No. 10 Michigan 30-28, 30-19, 30-23 Saturday night in Ann Arbor, Mich., to remain unbeaten in the Big Ten. Wisconsin snapped the Wolverines’ 13-game unbeaten streak, the third-longest in the nation.
“It’s great playing a high-ranked team and winning in three games,” head coach Pete Waite said. “The first game was really important. We played them by capitalizing on some of their errors and I think the win was attributed to our serving.”
Wisconsin (10-1, 2-0 Big Ten) suffocated the Wolverine front line, racking up an impressive 12 total blocks. Junior Audra Jeffers tallied eight block assists on the night, a new career high. Sophomore Katherine Dykstra added five block assists and senior Taylor Reineke and freshman Allison Wack each added four for the Badgers.
Wisconsin hit an impressive .347 on the night while holding Michigan (13-1, 1-1 Big Ten) to a .149 hitting percentage.
Reineke led all players with 11 kills and a season-high .643 hitting percentage for the match. Dykstra and Wack added 10 kills a piece. Preseason All-Big Ten senior setter Jackie Simpson also dished out a match-high 39 assists.
“It was a night where Brittney Dolgner didn’t have to carry the load; Taylor (Reineke) had a great night with her hitting percentage and (Kat) Dykstra did well also,” said Waite. “We had four players who had nine to 11 kills each, with Dolgner in that group and Jackie did a nice job distributing the hits.”
Wisconsin scored four aces against the Wolverines, including two from senior Amanda Berkley. Senior libero Jocelyn Wack also added 10 more digs to her career totals.
Wisconsin started slowly in game one, but untimely Michigan errors kept the visiting Badgers in the game. Wisconsin eventually established its blocking and used a kill from Dykstra to win a tightly-fought first set.
Games two and three were much less competitive, as the Badgers dominated from the first serve. Wisconsin never trailed in either of the final two games.
Michigan, whose No. 10 ranking was its highest in school history, was the highest-ranked team that Wisconsin has defeated this year.
The Badgers will conclude their 10-game road tour this upcoming weekend when they travel to Northwestern and Michigan State.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
