It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The Badgers’ final weekend of home contests was a tale of two matches, starting with a sweep by No. 2 Penn State Friday night before winning a big 3-1 match on senior day against Ohio State Sunday.
The match against Penn State (13-1 Big Ten, 23-2 overall) was about as close as a sweep can be.
No. 14 Wisconsin (9-7, 20-8) fought back in the first set, keeping it close before the Nittany Lions took the set 25-23.
Penn State had to go to extra points to fend off UW in the second set, ultimately winning 27-25.
In the final set, the Badgers took an early lead, but it quickly evaporated and UW lost 25-16, sealing the win for the Nittany Lions.
“I think we started slow in the first set, but really fought back, and we just couldn’t pull it out,” freshman setter Lauren Carlini said. “In the second game we were right there with them. In the third, we started strong, and let up in the end. We couldn’t keep up with them.”
The Nittany Lions were stellar defensively against the Badgers. Penn State has the lowest opponent’s hitting percentage in the Big Ten and held the Badgers to an unusually low 0.129 in the match, with a lone Wisconsin player above 0.300 in freshman middle blocker Haleigh Nelson.
On senior day the spotlight was on the lone senior, libero Annemarie Hickey. She promptly stepped up, leading the Wisconsin backcourt to a solid match over Ohio State Sunday.
“Our backs did a good job keeping the ball off the floor,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I think sometimes those little tykes don’t get enough credit, but they were tough today.”
The first set was a story of streaks, with Wisconsin jumping to a quick 11-4 lead only to have OSU tie at 18 and ultimately win 25-23. Mistakes were prevalent throughout the match for both teams, with the first point coming off a service error by the Buckeyes, and the last point coming off a Wisconsin four-hit infraction.
“We let that big lead up in the first match so we wanted to learn from our mistakes and put pressure on the other team and show them we can finish,” Hickey said.
After hitting 0.133 in the first set, the Badgers came out and dominated OSU in the second, winning 25-18 with a hitting percentage of 0.429. Carlini had 14 of her 50 assists in the set and spread the ball to a plethora of hitters throughout the match.
Another 0.429 hitting performance in the third set gave the Badgers another win, this time by a score of 25-21. Unlike the streak-laden first set, this match was back and forth, with 12 ties and four lead changes. Neither team was able to grab control of the match until the end.
The fourth set wasn’t pretty, with both teams hitting below 0.180, but the Badgers had a late run that propelled them to a 25-21 match-clinching win. Wisconsin got its serving game into a rhythm, notching two aces in the set.
Hickey is wrapping up a spectacular career at UW, where she is third all-time in both digs and digs per set.
“I can’t focus on myself, I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates,” Hickey said. “We played awesome, and we really followed our game plan.”
