Wisconsin volleyball sweeps Nebraska, the nation's No. 1 team, with relative ease
MADISON – The surprise wasn’t that Wisconsin's volleyball team knocked off Nebraska on Wednesday night. It was how hard the defending national champions dropped the nation’s No. 1 team.
In a rematch of the national final, the Badgers scored a sweep by holding the Cornhuskers to their third-lowest hitting percentage of the season, dominating at the service line and in serve-receive while putting on another impressive showing at the net defensively.
UW led for the entire second half of the first set and owned leads of at least nine points in the second and third sets.
In some ways, the 25-23, 25-23, 25-18 win played in front of a vocal announced crowd of 7,229 at the UW Field House wasn’t as close as the score indicates.
“This is what I came here for. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole game,” outside hitter Sarah Franklin said. “I was like ’This is what I want to do.’ It’s just so awesome, and when I’m in the game sometimes I don’t realize how well we’re doing. It’s just fun to be on the court with all these girls. It’s just a good time.”
The victory was UW’s third straight over a No. 1 ranked team – it beat Louisville in the national semifinals last season and Baylor in the 2019 national semis – and raised its record to 16-3 overall. The Badgers are now tied for the Big Ten lead with Nebraska at 10-1.
Franklin, a redshirt sophomore, took 35% of the team’s swings and delivered 21 kills, one off her season high, and a .381 hitting percentage. The Badgers’ second-most productive hitter, junior Devyn Robinson, finished with nine kills and a .222 hitting percentage.
It was a tough night for hitters regardless of the uniform. UW, however, out-passed a team that coach Kelly Sheffield called the best passing team in the Big Ten and found a way to score against a unit that entered play leading the Big Ten in a handful of defensive categories.
Wisconsin’s defense is also one of the Big Ten’s best. Wednesday, the Badgers held Nebraska to .229 hitting or lower in each set and allowed .162 for the match. Senior middle blocker Danielle Hart finished with a season-high nine blocks while Robinson had six.
"I just thought Wisconsin put a lot of pressure on us and we didn't handle it very well,” said Nebraska coach John Cook, whose team is 18-2 overall. “It all started at the service line. They served really well and we had a hard time passing. We never really got in a rhythm tonight. We know Wisconsin's a good serving team and they served really well tonight. We just didn't handle it."
Wisconsin recorded six aces, but more often than that served Nebraska out of system. Senior Izzy Ashburn had a run of six straight serves for points in the second set. Sophomore Julia Orzol had a run of five straight in the third set.
The two served back-to-back in UW’s rotation and during the third set were at the heart of an 8-1 run that turned an 8-8 tie into a 16-9 Badgers advantage.
That run was one of a handful of key stretches in the match.
In the first set, Nebraska fought off two set points before UW closed that portion of the match with a Franklin kill. In the second, UW built a 22-12 lead but nearly lost all of it before Hart ended the set with a couple of blocks, one with Orzol and the other with Robinson.
“It’s the Big Ten Conference, right?" Hart said when asked about the challenge of closing out that set. "The team on the other side is obviously a team we very much respect and you’ve got to expect those moments, you’ve got to expect them to come back with a hammer.
“They’re not just going to fall down and so it’s just grinding through those and sticking together and making sure we get in the huddle and realize we lost the aggressive side, getting that back and reminding ourselves to stay patient and work with each other to score.”
Another reality of the Big Ten is that the schedule rarely lets up. Up next for Wisconsin is a home match with No. 9 Minnesota at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The Gophers swept the Badgers on Sept. 25.
And, in case you're wondering, the rematch with Nebraska will be Nov. 25.
"You just played the No. 1 team in the country and in three days we’ll play a team that just swept us a few weeks ago. How awesome is that?" Sheffield said. "That was the first match of the second half of the Big Ten. We get right back to work.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Badgers volleyball sweeps Nebraska, the nation's No. 1 team
