No. 16 Badgers halt the Hawkeyes

Friday, October 23

Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa

7:00 PM

Wisconsin Badgers

13-6, 5-4

Iowa

10-12, 0-9

Wisconsin

Iowa

Photo by: Greg Anderson

No. 16 Badgers halt the Hawkeyes

October 23, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

Stingy defense powers UW past Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Winning on the road is no easy feat in the Big Ten, but the No. 16 Wisconsin volleyball team made a statement by sweeping Iowa 25-22, 25-22, 25-18, Friday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

With the victory, Wisconsin improves to 13-6 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten.

"We're playing a team that's just such a very, very, very different look than what anybody else is doing," UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "Offensively and defensively, they're very different, and tonight was one of those matches where there were a lot of positives to come out of that. It wasn't pretty all the time, but we had our moments come out."

The Badgers dominated on defense, as UW outblocked Iowa 11-5 and outdug it 63-45. Freshman Tionna Williams led at the net as she recorded seven blocks to tie her career high, while junior Lauren Carlini added four.

Senior Taylor Morey totaled 15 digs, followed by sophomore Kelli Bates with 10 and freshman Amber MacDonald with nine.

After UW held a 7-4 lead early on in the first set, junior Haleigh Nelson made her presence at the net known as her kill sparked a 4-0 run to extend the UW advantage to 14-8. A kill by sophomore Lauryn Gillis followed by a block by Carlini and Williams brought the score to 19-14 and forced an Iowa timeout. After the timeout, the Hawkeyes managed to come as close as 23-21 thanks to sharp hitting, Following a swing by Nelson that brought set point, Iowa's Lauren Brobst retaliated with a kill of her own to extend the set. Halting the mounting Hawkeye comeback, Gillis put down a kill to give the Badgers the first set.

The start of the second set saw strong hitting by both sides to tie it at nine, but freshman Madison Duello stepped in to quickly set the tone of the match. Duello got things going with a kill, and Nelson contributed three service aces to guide a 9-0 Badger run to bring the score to 18-9. After battling on every point to bring it to 22-13, the Hawkeyes went on a 7-0 run of their own. Snapping the dangerous Hawkeye streak was Bates, who later registered another kill to bring set point. After Ashley Mariani of Iowa extended the set with a kill, Bates brought the back-and-forth set to an end with her fourth extermination of the set as UW captured the second stanza, 25-22.

Eager to sweep the crafty Hawkeyes, the Badgers fired on all cylinders to dominate the final set. After a 4-0 run by Iowa, the Badgers responded with a 4-1 run of their own thanks to two kills, a block and service ace from the balanced Badgers to take a 9-6 lead. Strong Iowa serving put the Hawkeyes dangerously close at 15-14, but Carlini and Williams combined for a block and sparked a 5-0 Badger run to provide a comfortable cushion. To complete the sweep, Bates brought match point with a kill, and Gillis sealed the victory with her match-high 11th kill.

Bates added eight kills, while redshirt junior Romana Kriskova and Williams each totaled seven to round out the balanced Badger attack.

UW hit .252 (46 kills - 16 errors - 119 total attempts), while Iowa hit .144 (31-15-111).

At the service line, Nelson tied her career high of four aces.

Carlini tallied a match-high 39 assists. The setter also chipped in three kills and seven digs.

The Badgers wrap up their road swing with a trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on No. 3 Nebraska Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Devaney Center. The Badgers' match against the Huskers will air on BTN.