In its first set of road matches this year, the No. 10 UW volleyball team (5-1) suffered its first loss of the season before bouncing back and tallying two more victories this weekend at the BYU Molten Classic Tournament in Provo, Utah.
The Badgers fell to No. 15 BYU in a match that came down to the wire before striking back with a vengeance to sweep two NCAA Tournament contenders from last year, Northern Iowa and American University.
Friday night's loss (26-30, 30-25, 30-25, 26-30, 15-13) to BYU was by far the most challenging match UW has faced thus far this season. The Cougars, who played in front of a home crowd more than 3,880 strong, edged the Badgers in team hitting .324 to .229, out-blocked them 17 to 12, and out-dug them 69 to 58.
Despite getting off to a good start with a victory in the first game, Wisconsin hit a slide in games two and three, hitting only .103 and .051 respectively. The Badgers bounced back in game four thanks to a game-high eight kills from sophomore outside hitter Brittney Dolgner, who finished the night with 22 kills to lead all hitters.
Unfortunately, UW got off to a slow 1-5 start in the final match and never managed to catch up to the BYU attack.
That was a tough match,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said. ""BYU played great in front of a huge crowd and I think it gave them a lot of energy to get over the humps and get back on track after we won the first game.""
The Badgers wasted no time getting back on track when the tournament continued Saturday, battling Northern Iowa for a win (34-32, 30-25, 30-17). The match was a career day for several Badgers, as sophomore opposite hitter Katherine Dykstra threw down a career-high 16 kills, freshman defensive specialist Kim Kuzma had a career-high 18 digs and sophomore outside hitter Caity DuPont matched her career-best in kills with nine. Dolgner once again led all players in kills for the match with 19. Defensively, the Badgers put up 10 blocks, but more importantly, managed to hold the Panther offense to .168 hitting.
To round out the weekend, the Badgers soundly defeated American University 30-21, 30-23, 30-20 to bring home a second place finish in the tournament. Waite used this match to get a more extensive look at some of the players from his bench, including redshirt freshman Nikki Klingsporn, who was given the start instead of senior setter Jackie Simpson.
Klingsporn made the most of the opportunity by putting up 47 assists, throwing down two kills, and serving 17 times with one service ace in the match. As a team, the Badgers served very well and tallied 10 service aces.
In addition to Klingsporn, junior outside hitter Morgan Salow and freshman outside hitter Allison Wack came off the bench and made major contributions, hitting .471 and .400 respectively. Salow contributed three service aces on the afternoon.
""This was the first of a good number of road trips that we have ahead of us,"" Waite said. ""I think we solidified our lineup a little more. Kim Kuzma really stepped it up and Kat Dykstra put up some big numbers at the net.""
Wisconsin will return home this week to prepare for a second tournament out west next weekend in Los Angeles, as the Badgers take on Columbia, Tulane and Loyola Marymount in the Loyola Marymount Classic Sept. 7 and 8.
uwbadgers.com contributed to this report
