CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The sixth-seeded Wisconsin volleyball team lost a heartbreaker to No. 3 Illinois in the NCAA regional finals Saturday afternoon. The Badgers fell 25-19, 15-25, 25-22, 25-23 in a heavyweight battle in Huff Hall.
 
After Illinois (32-3) came out hot in the first set, Wisconsin (25-7) quieted the crowd with a convincing second set win to tie the match.
 
Statistically speaking, the match was as tight as the score read. The Badgers hit a match-high .338 (62 kills – 16 errors – 136 attempts) while the Illini hit .294 (59-17-143).
 
Sophomore Dana Rettke led the Badgers with 21 kills while senior Tionna Williams and sophomore Molly Haggerty also added double-digit kills with 13 and 12, respectively.
 
Wisconsin out dug Illinois 58-49 behind a match-high 19 digs from junior libero Tiffany Clark. Sophomore setter Sydney Hilley add 11 digs, which paired with her 55 assists led to her team-best 16^th double-double of the season.
 
At the net, Illinois held the slight 11-10 blocking advantage. Rettke also led the Badgers in blocks with five denials.
 
Illinois topped UW from behind the service line, collecting five aces compared to Wisconsin's two.
 

There's so much to be proud of this season. Thanks for a great ride #Badgers! pic.twitter.com/US63YMxznl

— Wisconsin Volleyball (@BadgerVB) December 8, 2018

 

Notes to know

• The Badgers end their season 25-7, advancing to at least the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the sixth straight season. Wisconsin falls to 2-7 in the regional finals.
• UW is now 46-22 in 22 years of the NCAA tournament, including an 18-6 mark under sixth-year head coach Kelly Sheffield.
• Sophomore Dana Rettke and senior Tionna Williams were named to the regional all-tournament team. 
• With her fourth kill of the match, which came in the second set, Williams recorded her 1,000th career kill. The 6-foot-2 middle blocker became the 22nd Badger to surpass the grand mark. Williams also picked up her 500th career block vs. San Diego on Friday, becoming the sixth UW player to record 1,000 kills and 500 blocks in a career.
• Wisconsin lost a match for the first time this season when it hit .300 or better. UW outhit the Illini .338 to .294. 

 

Straight from the court

"This was one heck of a volleyball match; you can tell by the sniffles that it's hard. That will be a match that will stick with everyone for a really long time. It was two really, really good teams going at it with the resiliency on both sides of the net and a high level of play on both sides of the net.
 
"As painful as that is, like I told them downstairs, the overriding feeling that I've got with them is pride. I am proud of how far we've come, of how far these three and their teammates have come from a year ago, and from the beginning of this season, of the resiliency of coming in here, in an unbelievable environment, against a team that's been playing well for a long time. I am proud of the fight and the resiliency; it was a great match."
 
­-Head coach Kelly Sheffield
 
"This team is all about pride, especially with being down in that final set, coming back, and everybody believing that we could come back. Nobody laid down. There is just tremendous pride, but it hurts. It hurts a lot."
 
-Senior Tionna Williams
 
"I don't really know what changed, but we just played better volleyball. We looked each other in the eye and said, 'we are not going down like this'. We needed to bring everyone together and just fight for our lives at that point, and that was honestly amazing. Even though the outcome wasn't what we wanted, the strength that everyone had at that time was amazing."
 
-Sophomore Dana Rettke
 
"I think it's really hard to see positives right now because our dream was to go to the final four. To be that close and to think about all the things you could have done, it's hard to see any positives, but there are so many. I think as a team, we were totally transformed from the beginning of the season to the end."
 
-Sophomore Sydney Hilley