The No. 3 Wisconsin Badgers dominated the weekend against two ranked opponents, leaving an opportunity for winning the Big Ten wide open for the Badgers.
Wisconsin beat Michigan 3-1 on Friday night.
Both teams swapped leads throughout the first set. Wisconsin had the lead 22-19, but Michigan had three kills to tie the score. Michigan’s Kieffer-Wright had three kills in a row to give Michigan the win. Michigan won the set 25-23.
Wisconsin took the lead in the second set and maintained it throughout. Wisconsin had four blocks and 17 kills to seal the deal. Wisconsin won the set 25-18 on a kill from Lauryn Gillis.
The Badgers took the lead in the third set, but Michigan tied it at 6-all. Wisconsin built a solid lead, and Michigan was unable to pressure the Badgers. Once again, the Badgers’ offense and defense played its best game. They had five blocks and 16 kills. Wisconsin won the set 25-17 on a block from Williams.
Wisconsin dominated the final set. Wisconsin’s offense completely shut down the Wolverines. Wisconsin had 20 kills at a .500 hitting percentage and its defense kept Michigan to eight kills. Wisconsin won the set, and match, 25-13 after a kill from Williams.
“We got our hands in better position and I thought our backcourt defense was phenomenal, especially as the match went on,” Coach Kelly Sheffield said.
Freshman Molly Haggerty lead the team with 22 kills and 13 digs, marking her sixth career double-double. Senior Lauren Carlini recorded 58 assists, moving her in to the second spot of UW’s career records list for assists.
Wisconsin swept Michigan State on Saturday night.
Wisconsin took the lead in the first set, but Michigan State rallied back to tie the score at 5-all, and took the lead from Wisconsin after tying the score. Both teams swapped leads until Wisconsin took the lead 18-17. Wisconsin maintained its lead the rest of the way, and won the set 25-20 on a block from Williams and Gillis.
Both teams swapped leads in the beginning of the second set, but Wisconsin started to pull away in the middle of the set. Both teams had less than spectacular stats on offense, with Michigan State’s 12 kills at .079 percent, and Wisconsin’s 13 kills at .162 percent. Regardless, Wisconsin won 25-19 on a kill from Haleigh Nelson.
Once again, the two teams swapped leads until Wisconsin broke away after a tie score of 7-7. Wisconsin had the lead 23-15, but Michigan State went on a 7-0 run to put some pressure on the Badgers’ lead. Wisconsin maintained its composure and won the set 25-23 on a kill from Romana Kriskova.
“I thought we did a really good job of being resilient,” Sheffield said. “Those guys have some servers that were pacing some bombs over there. I thought we battled and fought to try to get the ball up in the air. To hold that team to hitting .103 was another really good defensive night for us.”
Wisconsin certainly made a statement after beating two ranked opponents this weekend. After the win Saturday night, Wisconsin recorded 11 wins against ranked opponents on the season, tying a program record.
“To come in here 2-0 for these two teams that will probably be seeded going in to the NCAA tournament, I’d say this was a pretty good weekend for us,” Sheffield said.
Wisconsin has two matches left in the regular season. The Iowa Hawkeyes travel to Madison Wednesday night to face the Badgers on their last home match of the season. Wisconsin swept Iowa in their first regular season match in late October.
Wisconsin will travel to No. 2 Minnesota on Saturday. The Gophers swept the Badgers at home in mid-October.
Wisconsin improves to 24-3 overall, and 16-2 in the conference. With the wins this weekend, Wisconsin maintains a nine-game winning streak. Wisconsin is second in the conference, sitting behind Nebraska by one game.
Nebraska faces a tough last two matches. The Cornhuskers travel to Minnesota on Wednesday night, and host Michigan Saturday night.
Minnesota sits in third of the conference, one game behind Wisconsin with a record of 14-3. Minnesota beat Michigan Sunday afternoon, 3-2. Minnesota hosts the top two teams in the conference in the last week of the regular season.
With the top three Big Ten teams playing each other in the last week of the regular season, the Big Ten Championship is up in the air. Any of the teams can take the trophy at this point.
The Badgers must use the momentum from this weekend to make a statement going in to the last week of the regular season, right before the NCAA Tournament.
Photo courtesy of uwbadgers.com