Molly Haggerty swings at the ball
Greg Anderson
3
Winner Wisconsin WIS 7-1
0
Texas A&M TAMU 6-5
Winner
Wisconsin WIS
7-1
3
Final
0
Texas A&M TAMU
6-5
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Wisconsin WIS 25 25 25 (3)
Texas A&M TAMU 16 17 22 (0)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

Good golly miss Molly

Freshman Haggerty leads Badgers over No. 16 Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – It was the kind of match that players dream of.

For freshman Molly Haggerty, the outside hitter not only led the sixth-ranked Wisconsin (7-1) volleyball team to a sweep of No. 16 Texas A&M but also set a school record for kills in the process. Haggerty had a match-high 27 kills, leading the Badgers to a 25-16, 25-17, 25-22 win over the Aggies.

"That's some pretty big offensive numbers," head coach Kelly Sheffield said of Haggerty. "She obviously had some nice swings but she had some swings that weren't really good hand contact or would just fall down off the block for a kill. She was awfully good offensively and passed almost a 2.5 (out of 3.0) tonight.

"(Haggerty) carried us offensively but I was really happy with the way we defended, especially in the backcourt. I thought we were really good defensively. Kelli (Bates) was really, really good and had some big digs on some great swings. She really frustrated their outsides. Our backcourt was awfully good."

Haggerty finished with a match-high 27 kills, smashing the previous three-set school record under 25-point rally scoring of 19 kills set by Elise Walch in 2010. Haggerty also tied the all-time rally-scored UW record of 27 kills, set in five sets by Brittney Dolgner in 2007 and 2008.

"Every ball Lauren (Carlini) gives is always a swingable ball," Haggerty said of her record-setting performance. "Whether we're in system or out of system, whoever's setting if it's not Lauren, puts up a great ball, gives us a swingable ball. I think that's why there weren't that many errors in that match with everything I could swing at."

In addition to her 27 kills, Haggerty hit a match-high .641 with only two errors on 39 attempts. The outside hitter had more than half of UW's kills in the match as it hit .315 (47 kills – 13 errors – 108 attempts) compared to .178 (35-17-101) for the Aggies (6-5).

"I just try to play and not really worry about how many kills (or) how many errors I have," Haggerty added. "Just stay within the team and just play my best. I wasn't really thinking about it."

The Badgers' next leading hitter was Haleigh Nelson with six kills and Romana Kriskova with five kills.

Defense was key as Wisconsin outblocked Texas A&M 11 to 5 behind six blocks apiece from Carlini and Tionna Williams. Carlini put up 40 assists as UW had its third-best team hitting percentage of the season.

UW also finished with a 45-40 advantage in digs with Bates recording a match-high 14 saves while adding one service ace.
 
"I think that's something we take great pride in, both front row and back row," Sheffield said of his team's defense. "I thought we were solid defensively. Our ball control was good, our defense was good and Molly carried us offensively. We fought and battled and kept the ball off the floor. She terminated a lot of plays for us."

Sheffield credited strong serving by freshman Sarah Dodd and sophomore Amber MacDonald, who each added a service ace, in keeping the Aggies out of their offense.
 
Three early Haggerty kills allowed Wisconsin to jump out to a 5-0 lead to open the match. The Aggies closed the gap to within one (8-7) behind two kills from Kiara McGee but two more Haggerty kills put the Badger lead back up to 12-9. A&M would get no closer as Haggerty finished with nine kills in the period and UW had two late blocks to seal the win.

The Badgers rallied from a 10-5 deficit in the second set, going on an 8-3 run to tie the stanza at 13 behind two straight kills from Haggerty. Wisconsin extended its run to 11-3 and led 16-13 before the Aggies stopped the rally with a kill. It was a two-point set (18-16) before three straight Badger blocks and a service ace by MacDonald put UW up 23-16.  Another Haggerty kill and a service ace from Bates gave Wisconsin a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Aggies took a 7-5 lead in the third set before three Haggerty kills keyed a 5-0 run to put UW up 11-7. Wisconsin extended its lead to 13-8 before a 5-0 run by the home team tied the set at 13. Neither team led by more than two points until late in the set when a Nelson kill gave Wisconsin its first match point at 24-22. An Aggie hitting error completed the UW sweep.

Wisconsin wraps up its non-conference season on Sunday, playing at No. 2 Texas. First serve is at noon from Gregory Gym in Austin, Texas.
 
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