The Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team is now on a three-game winning streak after completing consecutive sweeps against the University of California-Davis, Chicago State and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Wisconsin outpaced the competition in all three of these matchups and created a strong advantage in kills, service aces and blocks.
Head coach Kelly Sheffield attributed the wins to the work his team is putting in on and off the court.
“These guys have worked,” Sheffield said. “The confidence level continues to go up.”
UC-Davis
Wisconsin won its first sweep of the season against the UC-Davis Aggies, winning the sets 25-23, 26-24 and 25-15.
Sets one and two finished with close scores, and it took few errors and excellent serving for Wisconsin to outpace UC-Davis. Wisconsin finished with six total aces, five ahead of the Aggies.
Freshman setter Addy Horner made a crucial service ace at the end of the first set, which pushed Wisconsin over to the winning side. Horner also continuously set up Wisconsin hitters for successful offensive attacks. Wisconsin attempted 104 kills throughout the game and turned 44 of those into points.
In set two, the Badgers came roaring back from a 16-8 deficit. After the Aggies went on an 8-0 run, Wisconsin players collected themselves and bounced back with two separate 5-0 runs to put the game back in their favor.
“You got a choice of how you’re going to respond to that and I thought we started playing harder,” Sheffield said regarding the Badgers’ resilience. “We started getting a little bit more touches on the block, and then in the third set, we were just fighting and scraping and covering our attackers.”
In the third set alone, UC-Davis made eight errors. Wisconsin was able to use this momentum to win the final set by ten points.
Freshman libero Kristen Simon recorded double-digit digs (12) for the third straight match.
Middle blocker Carter Booth attributed the result to her squad’s competitiveness. “[Sheffield] came in and said ‘They’re out-playing you,’ and that’s all we needed to hear because they were, and that’s never going to be acceptable to any of us.”
Chicago State
The Badgers carried this winning streak into their next game against the Chicago State Cougars on Sept. 5. New to Division I volleyball as of this season, the Cougars did not compete on the same level as Wisconsin.
Wisconsin pulled off another sweep with even more impressive stats than the numbers they put up against UC-Davis. The final scores of each set were 25-8, 25-13 and 25-11.
Mimi Colyer, Una Vajagic and Booth led Wisconsin in kills. They were supported by setters Horner and Charlie Fuerbringer who tallied 25 and 12 assists, respectively. In total, the Badgers scored over 40 kills, assists and digs apiece.
Sheffield said he appreciated his team’s consistency throughout the match. “Holding any team to 13 kills in a match is doing some things defensively and serving wise,” Sheffield said. “I thought we put a lot of pressure behind the service line and loved how we were pursuing balls in the backcourt.”
Milwaukee
Wisconsin found even more success against the UW-Milwaukee Panthers on Tuesday.
The Badgers kept the Panthers to only seven points in the first set, leading the competition with 13 kills and only one error. Milwaukee was forced to end the set with a negative hitting percentage.
Player of the set was awarded to outside hitter Grace Egan, who completed five service aces for Wisconsin’s offensive game.
Set two provided a bit more challenge for Wisconsin. The Badgers weren’t able to get back into the rhythm they had picked up in the first set and stayed closer to the Panthers in scoring.
Egan made a quick serve early in the second set to center court that was returned immediately to Alicia Andrew at the net. Andrew saw the opportunity and sent the ball down directly on the Milwaukee side of the net, rather than setting the Badgers up for a three-touch play.
Andrew had another immediate return kill to score Wisconsin’s nineteenth point. Andrew trailed just Coyler this game for kills — eight versus ten — but Andrew had a higher overall attack percentage of .800.
Wisconsin picked up the pace in the last half of the set and finished the win 25-15.
Fuerbringer went on a five-point serving run early in the third set, and Wisconsin won the final set 25-11. The Badgers earned a season-high attack percentage of .457.
“I think we play our best when we're confident with our skills and with ourselves and how we're playing the team,” Colyer told The Daily Cardinal. “So I think this just gives us some really good footing going into some more ranked opponents this weekend.”
Next, the Badgers face No. 21 Georgia Tech, Marquette and No. 16 Florida. Georgia Tech will be Wisconsin’s first road game before returning to Wisconsin to face Marquette in Milwaukee and Florida in the Kohl Center.
