Badgers celebrate a point
2
Illinois ILL 9-7, 4-3
3
Winner Wisconsin WIS 11-4, 7-0
Illinois ILL
9-7, 4-3
2
Final
3
Wisconsin WIS
11-4, 7-0
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Illinois ILL 12 25 24 21 4 (2)
Wisconsin WIS 25 18 23 25 15 (3)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | Drew Kocken

Down, but never out

Battle-tested Badgers come from behind, beat Illinois in five sets

Madison, WI – The sixth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team continues to show that its tough schedule is paying off. After falling behind two sets to one, the Badgers came storming back to beat No. 17 Illinois, 25-12, 18-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-4, at the UW Field House on Friday night, staying atop the Big Ten Conference at 7-0.

Three Badgers (11-4 overall) finished with double-figure kills, led by Grace Loberg and Molly Haggerty, each with 14, while Dana Rettke added 12.

As a team, the Badgers hit .283 in the match (53 kills – 12 errors – 145 attempts) to Illinois' .186 (62–31–167). The Illini's (9-7, 4-3) Jacqueline Quade finished with a match-high 20 kills while Megan Cooney added 14 kills for the visitors, but neither hit better than .143.

Redshirt sophomore Danielle Hart came through with a monster defensive performance at the net, posting a career-high 11 blocks. Wisconsin outblocked Illinois 14.5 – 5.0 in the match.

 Lauren Barnes and Sydney Hilley held down the back court, both finishing with season highs of 14 digs a piece.

Barnes also tied her career-high with three service aces as UW recorded an 8-3 advantage in service aces. Hilley tacked on 44 assists to her stat line, totaling her team-leading sixth double-double on the year.

Despite being bested in kills (53-62) and digs (66-73), the Badgers were able to persevere and get their first five-set win on the year in only their second attempt, falling to Marquette in five sets in early September.

Straight from the Court

"Awfully proud of the way our team battled. You look at the stat sheet and you realize how clean of a match that we played... 12 attack errors out of 145 swings. I'm not a great math person, but I'm sure it's probably around eight or nine percent attacking errors which is really low.

"When you're playing a tempo as fast as (Illinois was) running it, as much as they're serving, it can create a lot of stress. The fact that we didn't get aced and the fact that we played pretty clean offensively, I think that is a real tribute to these guys." -- Head Coach Kelly Sheffield

"I think our defense battled so well. They weren't letting anything hit the ground without giving max effort, and I think they are truthfully the reason why we were so good in that game. (The Illini) have some amazing servers and they were putting in good balls, but once again our passers battled it out and were able to get up good balls for us. Then Syd (Hilley) was putting up perfect balls and we were able to swing." – Grace Loberg

Notes to Know

  • Wisconsin allowed only 12 points in the first set, the fewest points it has allowed in a set this season.
  • Junior Sydney Hilley picked up her team-leading sixth double-double of the season, recording 44 assists and tying her season high with 14 digs.
  • Junior Lauren Barnes tied her career high with three service aces and tied her season high with 14 digs.
  • Redshirt sophomore Danielle Hart recorded a career high 11 blocks. Her total ties the UW five-set match record under 25-point rally scoring.
  • Senior M.E. Dodge recorded a season-high nine digs.

Up Next

The Badgers look to stay perfect in the Big Ten as they take on conference opponent Northwestern for the second time in 10 days on Saturday night. First serve is at 7 p.m. at the UW Field House.
 
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