Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The seventh-ranked volleyball team could not find a way to top No. 14 Michigan State on the road, dropping their third-straight match. The Spartans won the contest 22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-16, at Jenison Field House Saturday afternoon.
 
MSU (12-3 overall, 5-1 Big Ten) could not be slowed on offense, hitting .348 (55 kills – 17 errors – 129 attempts) for the match. UW (11-4, 2-4) hit .295 (63-15-138).
 
Junior Tionna Williams led the Cardinal and White with 17 kills while hitting .696 (17-1-23). Senior Lauryn Gillis earned 16 kills with Dana Rettke and Kelli Bates adding nine kills each.
 
Behind the service line, Michigan State picked up seven aces, six of which came from Brooke Kranda. The Badgers had two aces, one from Riley Bell and the other from Madison Duello.
 
In the backcourt Wisconsin had 54 digs to Michigan State's 51. Hilley and Bates each had 14 digs and libero Tiffany Clark collected 13 digs.
 

Notable

• Freshman Sydney Hilley recorded her fourth career double-double with 44 assists and a career-high 14 digs.
• MSU's hitting percentage of .348 is the highest percentage by an opponent of the season.
• The Badgers were outblocked 7-4, which ties their season low.
• Tionna Willimas and Lauryn Gillis recorded season-high kills, earning 17 and 16, respectively. Williams hitting percentage of .696 (17-1-23) is also a season high.
• Riley Bell tied her career high with one ace.
• UW hasn't lost three-straight matches since 2015, when they lost to Arkansas at the end of the non-conference season and Penn State, and Ohio State to open up Big Ten play.

 

Quotable

"We gave away too many points in our serve and pass game. With the number of errors that we had passing and the number of errors we had serving, which was an issue. A lot of our serves that were in wasn't getting them out of system what so ever. We spent the afternoon with our setter on the run. This team, especially at home, their serving is unbelievable. They had us on our heels the entire afternoon passing and I'm not sure we did enough behind the service line to cause them a whole lot of issues as well."
 
"I thought Tionna (Williams) was fantastic. The first part of the match I thought she was really effective in serve receive. The second half of the match I thought she was really effective as well in transition and was working really hard. She was mixing up her shots. I think her and Sydney (Hilley) were connecting really well."
 
-Head coach Kelly Sheffield 
 

Up next

The volleyball team returns home to face No. 4 Nebraska Wednesday night at the UW Field House. The match will air live on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m.