Wisconsin volleyball rejects Penn State's upset bid in a five-set thriller to advance to the 2022 NCAA Tournament regional final
MADISON – The last time Wisconsin and Penn State met the team dueled for 2½ hours in a match Badgers coach Kelly Sheffield equated the matchup to "two heavyweights slugging it out."
He had more adjectives when the teams meet Thursday. Epic. Gritty. Tough.
UW needed all grit and toughness it could muster and few more intangibles to score a 3-2 win over the Nittany Lions in a NCAA reginal semifinal played in front of announced crowd of 7,229 at the UW Field House. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Badgers spent the next two sets struggling to manage Penn State’s serve before coming alive in the final set.
The 25-21, 25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 15-8 win was the team’s 21st straight and gave Wisconsin, the No. 1 seed in its quarter of the bracket, a 3-0 record against fourth-seeded Penn State this season. Up next for the Badgers (28-3) is the regional final against Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Field House.
“I learned a lot about team tonight. I think we all did,” Sheffield said. “It was a rough night passing the ball. No doubt it. When you have that against an elite team most of the time you’re in real trouble and you’re going to get run out of the gym.
“But it didn’t affect our serve. It didn’t affect our block. It didn’t affect our backcourt defense. It didn’t affect how we communicated with each other. It didn’t affect our grittiness and it was tested.”
Sophomores Sarah Franklin and Anna Smrek finished with 13 kills each. Smrek hit a team-high .579 and also flirted with a double-double (eight kills). Junior Devyn Robinson posted 11 kills and six blocks. Freshman libero Gulce Guctekin had a team-high 18 digs followed by sophomore Julia Orzol, who equaled a career high with 16. Setters Izzy Ashburn and M.J. Hammill combined for 42 assists.
Junior Caroline Crawford had a career-high 12 blocks. Franklin (six) also had a career-high, while senior Danielle Hart finished with eight, seven coming during the first two sets. The Badgers finished with a season high 23 blocks.
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That effort on the net is part of the reason UW survived its struggles passing. Penn State had 46 errors and hit .056 for the match. The Nittany Lions had four players take at least 20 swings. Three of them – seniors Kashauna Williams and Zoe Weatherington and freshman Alexa Markley – posted negative hitting percentages.
“They’re a great defensive blocking team and we told our players to stay aggressive,” Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley said. “We swing away. That is how we find ways to score points, but I’m proud of the way our kids played and took some big swings. Wisconsin played a great match.”
Penn State (27-7) did, as well, giving the Badger faithful plenty of reason for concern. The Nittany Lions had UW reeling in the fourth set. Five of its 10 serve receive errors came in that set and the Badgers’ .097 hitting percentage was its second-worst of the day. The five-point deficit the team experienced during that set was its largest of the day.
Yet somehow by the start of the fifth set, Wisconsin had washed those issues away.
“We got in that huddle and we were ready to go,” Franklin said. “We knew this fifth set was it and we were like, we were going to put everything out there no matter what happens.”
The Badgers immediately put pressure on Penn State by scoring five of the first six points. Orzol served four of those points. Robinson had two kills during that stretch and a team-high three for the set.
Crawford was a human highlight film during that set. First she came up with a thunderous block in the middle on a swing by Weatherington to push the UW lead to 9-3. Later she and Smrek teamed up for back-to-back blocks that gave the Badgers a 12-4 advantage. And with the team closing in on the win, Crawford's kill set up match point.
“CC probably spent a good portion of the match pretty frustrated and then she steps out of this phone booth in the fifth set and made big play after big play,” Sheffield said.
Wisconsin’s fans were clutch, too. After erupting during the team’s fast start to the final set, most of the crowd spent the final third of the set on their feet.
Their impact wasn’t lost on the Badgers or their coach.
“We worked all year for home court and the fans that were in the building rewarded us with their energy and how they stayed with us,” Sheffield said. “We’re up 2-0, they win the next two and they were out there fighting with our players, with our team. It’s so cool to have a fan base that will do that when we you need them and we needed them tonight. It was a team effort.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball beats Penn State in Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament
