MADISON, Wis. -- The milestones continue to pile up for Wisconsin volleyball seniors Lauren Carlini and Haleigh Nelson, who each hit career landmarks during the Badgers' 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 victory over Rutgers at the UW Field House on Sunday.

"Congratulations to the old ladies for their milestones," UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said, "it's good stuff."

Carlini dished out her 5,000th career assist during the third set, becoming only the third player in program history to reach the milestone.

"It's pretty cool just to be within the top of the assist leaders at Wisconsin," Carlini said. "I can't believe I've already gotten here but it's just cool to be in that type of company and I wasn't really excited about it in the moment because it was a close game at that time but now just looking back, that's good company."

During the second set, Nelson hit her 1,000th career kill.

"I mean, it's pretty cool to be 20 percent of one of the assist leaders assists," Nelson said, referring back to Carlini's achievement. "So that's probably the coolest part about 1000 kills."

Earlier this season, Carlini became the program leader in double-doubles while Nelson recorded her 500th career block.

The Badgers (18-3 overall, 10-2 Big Ten) outhit the Scarlet Knights 61 kills to 23, averaging a .275 attack percentage (61 kills - 25 errors - 131 attempts). 

Redshirt senior Romana Kriskova led the dominant Wisconsin offense, recording 18 kills to set a Wisconsin high. Junior Lauren Gillis added 16 kills while junior Kelli Bates tabbed 11 and Nelson added eight kills and one ace.

UW's defense held the Knights to a .156 hitting percentage (23-6-109), despite Rutgers (4-11, 0-12 Big Ten) outblocking Wisconsin 14-2.

Freshman M.E. Dodge and Carlini both saved a match-high 15 digs. Carlini added 50 assists for her 12th double-double of the season while adding a match-high three service aces. Sophomore Amber MacDonald saved 13 digs, while Bates tallied 11 digs for her fourth double-double this year.

"I thought we were awfully good defensively today," Sheffield said. "I thought we defended like crazy and I thought our first contact to serve and pass was really good. I didn't think we were very good in transition and that's why we had a lot of those errors. I think that's a part of the game we struggle with. I loved our intensity with the defense. I'm not sure I liked the execution after we made the big moves and the ball was in the air. We talked about first contact and being feisty in the back row, I thought we did that."

Wisconsin made quick work of set one, storming to a 14-6 lead to force the Knights' first timeout. A 6-3 Badger run widened the UW lead to 20-9 and helped the Badgers hold on for the 25-14 set victory.

The Badgers hit a match-high .429 percent (20-5-35) in the first set, as six different Badgers had at least one kill in the first frame.

The Scarlet Knights gave the Badgers a bit more trouble in sets two and three, taking an early 5-2 lead and forcing 10 tie points during the second period. Wisconsin used its first timeout after Rutgers took a narrow 11-10 lead, then came back from the break with a 5-1 run to lead 15-12. UW's offense finished out the set, scoring all 10 of its final points on kills, including Nelson's milestone mark, for the 25-18 win.

Set three started out rocky, as Rutgers had an answer for every point Wisconsin scored and took a 12-11 lead over the Badgers. Kriskova scored four straight points, three kills and a block assist, to give Wisconsin a 15-12 advantage and force an RU timeout. The teams battled to a 23-23 tie, but after a UW timeout, two final kills from Kriskova finished out the sweep, 25-23.

The Badgers continue the second half of their Big Ten slate at Ohio State, facing the No. 19 Buckeyes on Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT in Columbus, Ohio. UW returns to the UW Field House on Saturday, hosting Purdue. The match, set to begin at 7 p.m., is already sold out.