Sarah Franklin leads Wisconsin volleyball's sweep of Illinois. The Badgers' winning streak goes to 11.
Wisconsin's volleyball team hasn't rested on its laurels since knocking off No. 1 Nebraska last week.
Thursday marked the third time the third-ranked Badgers faced an opponent for the second time this season. On two of those occasions they swept a team that gave them fits in the first meeting.
Illinois was the latest example. The Badgers (18-3, 12-1 Big Ten) scored a 25-22, 25-19, 25-22 victory in front of a crowd of 2,854 at Huff Hall in Champaign, Illinois. Wisconsin needed five sets to be their rival to the south on Oct. 2.
The win came immediately after a sweep of then-No. 9 Minnesota on Saturday, which avenged Wisconsin's only Big Ten loss of the season.
“Everything was working as a team and that is something we’ve been working on, staying as a unit, staying connected throughout the game no matter what the points are,” redshirt sophomore Sarah Franklin said during a post-game radio interview.
Franklin started slow, but recorded 12 kills in the final two sets and posted a match-high 14 kills for the match. She hit .242. Sophomore outside hitter Julia Orzol recorded nine kills with a .241 hitting percentage and junior Devyn Robinson had seven kills and four blocks while splitting time between right-side hitter and middle blocker.
The team also got a double-double from senior setter Izzy Ashburn (13 assists, 10 digs) and eight blocks from senior middle blocker Danielle Hart.
Defense was the story of the match. UW, which hit .221 for the match, held Illinois to a .065 hitting percentage. Raina Terry and Brooke Mosher, Illinois' standout outside hitters, combined for 40 kills in the teams' first meeting. This time they combined for 16 kills and a -.046 hitting percentage.
“I thought we served really well and it certainly shut down their outside attack,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.
The Badgers' offense improved as the match went on. They took control of the final set with a 7-1 run that turned a 17-14 deficit into a 21-18 lead.
Wisconsin closed out the match with a couple of kills by Franklin and an ace by Orzol before Robinson delivered a kill from the middle for match point.
UW captured the win without freshman libero Gulce Guctekin, who missed her second straight match due to a leg injury. Senior Shanel Bramschreiber filled in and made nine digs.
Junior middle blocker Caroline Crawford got banged up during the match and didn’t play the third set. That caused Sheffield to move Robinson to the middle and get junior Jade Demps into the rotation.
“I think she’ll be fine. It’s Caroline Crawford, right,” Sheffield said. “But that is what depth is for. What message are you sending your team when you’ve got someone who is banged up and you keep them out there and you’ve got some healthy people on the bench.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball sweeps Illinois, extends winning streak to 11
