| | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Wisconsin
| 25 | 24 | 27 | 28 | -- | Illinois
| 13 | 26 | 25 | 26 | -- | | Stats Leaders
| | WIS | | ILL
| | Bates - 17 | Kills | Birks - 20 | | Carlini - 54 | Assists | Viliunas - 51 | | Nelson - .545 | Hit %
| Stadick - .350 | | Morey - 25 | Digs | Donnelly - 22 | | Bates - 4 | Blocks | McMahon - 5 | | Carlini, Thomas - 2 | Aces | Viliunas - 2 | | Stats Comparison
| WIS | ILL
| | Kills | 67 | 63 | | Hitting Pct. | .271 | .197 | | Assists | 64 | 61 | | Service Aces | 4 | 3 | | Digs | 80 | 78 | | Total Blocks | 10 | 7 | | |
Nov. 19, 2014
MADISON, Wis. -- It was a top-10 battle of two of the best Big Ten Conference volleyball teams on Wednesday night in the UW Field House. The crowd of 5,345 got their money’s worth as No. 2 Wisconsin narrowly edged No. 10 Illinois 25-13, 24-26, 27-25, 28-26 in a thrilling nail biter.
The Badgers (25-2 overall) won their 16th straight conference match, tying a school record set in 1997. Wisconsin remains atop the Big Ten standings at 16-1.
| Fast Facts | | • UW matches school record for conference win streak with 16th straight win | | • Kelli Bates tallies a team-best and career-high 17 kills | | • Four Badgers mark double-figure kills | |
The Badgers put up impressive numbers on both fronts, with four players in double-figure kills and four in double-figure digs. Freshman Kelli Bates led the team with a career-high 17 kills, followed by sophomore Haleigh Nelson and senior Courtney Thomas with 12 kills apiece. Senior Ellen Chapman added 10 kills to complete the foursome.
“[Bates] was monstrous tonight,” UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “She was just absolutely monstrous tonight. “She showed an awful lot of heart and helped us do a really good job of slowing down McMahon. She is awfully, awfully good.”
Thomas also marked two service aces and 14 digs to complete her seventh double-double of the season. Sophomore Lauren Carlini followed suit, tallying 54 assists and 10 digs to up her season double-double total to 14.
Junior Taylor Morey led all players with 25 digs, her 11th match this season with 20-plus digs, followed by senior Deme Morales with a career-high 19 saves.
Wisconsin hit .271 (67 kills – 18 errors – 181 attempts) while holding Illinois to a .197 (63-27-183) overall attack percentage. The Illini were led by Jocelyn Birks with a match-high 20 kills while Liz McMahon added 13 putaways.
UW outblocked the Illinois 10-7, led by a match-high six from Nelson.
The Badgers jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set before Bates put away back-to-back rockets during a 4-0 run to extend Wisconsin’s lead to 14-7. With Thomas stepping up to the service line, the right-side hitter served five straight points and drove home a kill that pushed UW to a 24-11 advantage. Illinois held off two set points before Chapman sent the set-winning kill to the floor, giving Wisconsin the 25-13 win.
Wisconsin hit .486 (18-1-35) in the first period, led by Thomas with five kills and a .625 (5-0-8) attack percentage. Chapman chipped in five kills, hitting .556 (18-1-35). UW outblocked the Illini 3-0, helping hold Illinois to a .167 (11-5-36) hitting percentage. Thomas also recorded the only two service aces of the set.
The second set featured 14 ties as neither team led by more than three points. Illinois led 18-15 before the Badgers scored three straight to tie the set at 18. The score was knotted once more (19-19) before Illinois took a 24-22 lead off a kill from Birks. Wisconsin held off two sets points by the Illini to tie the set again, this time at 24, before a Badger service error and kill from Michelle Strizak evened up the match.
The Illini upped their hitting percentage to .327 (21-4-52), led by Birks with 11 kills. Wisconsin’s percentage dropped to .265 (17-4-49) with Bates marking a team-best four kills. Illinois outblocked UW 2-0.
Illinois jumped to a 13-7 lead in the third set and extended its advantage to 22-14 off three kills and a service ace. The Illini led 23-16 before Bates keyed an 8-0 run to give UW set point at 24-23. The freshman had four kills and a block during the run.
Illinois tied the set at 24 before a kill from Nelson gave the Badgers their second set point opportunity at 25-24. But another Illini kill tied the set at 25. Another Bates smack gave Wisconsin its third set point at 26-25 before Thomas and Nelson teamed up for a Badger block that awarded UW the 27-25 win.
Bates led the team with six kills in the third set as the Badgers hit .273 (16-4-44). UW put up four total blocks, led by Nelson with three, while Illinois’ attack percentage decreased to .152 (16-9-46).
Wisconsin had a comfortable 10-3 lead to start the fourth set but Illinois took six of the next eight points to close the gap to 12-10. The Badgers lead 22-16 but the Illini kept battling back, pulling within two at 23-21. A Bates bash gave UW its first match point at 24-21 but Illinois scored three straight to tie the score at 24.
Illinois served for set point at 25-24 and 26-25 but a service error by the Illini knotted the score at 26, Chapman came up with a big kill before Nelson connected out of the middle to clinch the set and match for the Badgers.
The Badgers continue conference play Friday with a 6 p.m. match-up against No. 20 Ohio State at the St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
