MADISON, Wis. – Senior day is typically an emotional day for teams and players but Wisconsin volleyball senior
Tionna Williams channeled all of her emotions into a dominant performance during her final home match in the UW Field House Saturday night. No. 8 Wisconsin defeated visiting Indiana in straight sets (25-21, 25-14, 25-22) to go 2-0 on the weekend.
Williams was not the only person honored tonight. Badger fans also showed their thanks to senior manager and former player Amber McDonald, and official scorekeeper Lisa Peterson for her 40th and final season with the Badgers.
Wisconsin (18-6 overall, 11-5 B1G) hit .294 (44 kills – 12 errors – 109 attempts) for the match highlighted by 23 kills from middle blockers
Dana Rettke and Williams. The duo found the hard court 13 and 10 times, respectively.
Indiana (15-12, 6-10) hit only .175 (37-17-114) thanks to rock solid backcourt defense from the Badgers. Three UW players tallied double-digit digs to give Wisconsin a 55-45 advantage in saves. Sophomore
Sydney Hilley led all players with 13 digs while libero
Tiffany Clark tallied 12 saves and outside hitter
Molly Haggerty recorded 10 digs.
Hilley also had 40 assists on the night for her second-straight double-double of the weekend.
At the net, Williams led the Badgers with three blocks. Indiana out blocked UW, 7-5.
Notes to know
- Sophomore Dana Rettke led all players with 13 kills, her 14th straight match with 10-or-more kills.
- Junior Tiffany Clark picked up 12 digs, her 12th straight match in double-figure digs. The 5-foot-11 libero is only eight digs away from 1,000 for her career.
- The Badgers hosted their Senior Night, recognizing middle blocker Tionna Williams, the only senior on the UW squad, and former player turned team manager Amber MacDonald in post-match ceremonies.
- Wisconsin sold out all 12 home matches for the 2018 regular season, averaging a school record 7,052 fans per match.
Straight from the court
"Good weekend, good match tonight. I thought Tionna did a good job setting the tone tonight offensively and Sydney did a good job running the offense. (Sydney) made some really nice sets and had 13 digs. I think she went the month of September not getting 13 digs, so it was really nice to see her get that in the match tonight. Excited about the win, excited about the week."
-Head coach Kelly Sheffield
"I'm not much of the emotional type when it comes to senior night, so I didn't really think much about it, it was another match for me. Towards the end though, it starts setting in more that it is senior night and people are here to celebrate me and Amber. It was nice to share it with my teammates. It was just a good team win."
-Senior middle blocker Tionna Williams
"Indiana is a great team. They took it to us in the beginning of the first set and it took us a while to settle in, but I think we started to play a lot cleaner towards the end of the first set into the second set. They are a good team, so it was a good team win finishing that third set."
-Sophomore setter Sydney Hilley
Up next
The Badgers hit the road for the remainder of the Big Ten season. UW begins the road series at Ohio State on Friday, beginning play at 6 p.m. (CT).
