Sept. 16, 2011
• Box Score | Box Score 
| Quotes
Wisconsin 3, South Florida 0
UW Field House • Madison, Wis. | |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | South Florida
| 17 | 10 | 12 | -- | -- | Wisconsin
| 25 | 25 | 25 | -- | -- | | | | Stats Leaders
| | USF | | WIS | | El Houssine - 7 | Kills | Mitchell - 12 | | Dailey - 16 | Assists | Gabrielsen - 20 | | Walton - .333 | Hit %
| Mitchell - .688 | | Rivera - 11 | Digs | Hickey - 17 | | Breen - 6 | Blocks | Thompson - 4 | | El Houssine - 2 | Aces | Thompson - 3 | | Stats Comparison
| USF | WIS | | Kills | 20 | 48 | | Hitting Pct. | .058 | .354 | | Assists | 18 | 41 | | Service Aces | 3 | 4 | | Digs | 33 | 47 | | Total Blocks | 6 | 8 | | |
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MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin volleyball team took its winning streak into the start of the home season on Friday night when it swept South Florida 25-17, 25-10, 25-12 at the UW Field House.
The Badgers, now winners of five straight matches, sit at 7-3 on the season after winning their first match of the 20th-annual InnTowner Invitational.
| Fast Facts | | • Mitchell leads Badgers with 12 kills | | • UW hits .354 as a team | | • Thompson ties career high with 11 kills | |
Wisconsin hit .354 (48 kills - 13 errors - 99 attempts) as a team and was dominant on the defense as well, keeping USF to only .058 (20-15-86) overall.
Junior Alexis Mitchell and sophomore Dominique Thompson, both middle blockers, finished on top of the leaderboard in kills for all players. Mitchell's 12 kills were part of her career-high .688 (12-1-16) hitting percentage, while Thompson tied her career high in kills with 11. Thompson also had a career-high three service aces.
Reigning BIG EAST Freshman of the Week Valerie el Houssine put away seven kills for USF.
Freshman Courtney Thomas had her fifth double-double of the season in her first match at the Field House, finishing with 19 assists and 13 digs. Sophomore Annemarie Hickey led all players with 17 digs.
Although the final numbers may suggest otherwise, USF finished with a higher hitting percentage than the Badgers in the first set, partially because of the 4-0 run the Bulls used to start the match.
Head coach Pete Waite says his team needed to get used to playing at the Field House after opening the season on the road for nine matches.
"We had a little bit of a slow start when we got down 0-4 but that's kind of expected the first time in front of the home crowd in three weeks," he said.
After that USF run, the Badgers used a kill from freshman Ellen Chapman to respond with a run of their own, puting UW up 5-4. Although the score either tied or changed leads nine different times before Wisconsin pulled away, Waite says he's happy with how his team came back after the tough start.
"Once we settled down, we had nice momentum and were able to figure out South Florida a little bit," says Waite. "Being here at home, we're starting to play really well together."
The middle blockers played key roles in two different strings of Wisconsin points in the second set. Mitchell scored two straight kills to give UW the lead for the rest of the set at 4-2 while Thompson both scored and blocked twice in the Badgers' 8-0 run, putting them up 21-9. Mitchell also scored on a kill to set up set point.
"I was happy to see our middle blockers really get some good numbers today with Dom (Thompson) and Alexis (Mitchell)," said Waite. "It's something we've been working on with our setters to get them the ball more.
"We had to balance our attack better. We had been going too much to the outsides, so we've been really working on it in practice."
Wisconsin tied together strings of points at both the beginning and the end of the third set to win it 25-12. The Badgers never gave the lead away in the final frame and they kept USF to a negative .107 (6-9-28) hitting percentage while hitting .462 (15-3-26).
Wisconsin is back on the court Saturday morning, when it faces Western Michigan (9-2) at 11 a.m. The Badgers then face off against Notre Dame (6-3) in the nightcap of the InnTowner Invitational at 7 p.m.
While Waite is happy with how his team performed in their home opener, he knows that they will have to step up their game in order to win the program's 16th InnTowner title.
"These two teams are tough," he said. "They are both very strong teams, so we are really going to have to play our best to get those matches."
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