Badgers dominate Northwestern in second straight road sweep

EVANSTON, Illinois – The No. 7 Wisconsin volleyball team (9-4 overall, 5-0 Big Ten) snatched their second straight road sweep on Wednesday night, dominating Northwestern (9-8 overall, 0-5 Big Ten) 25-23, 25-15, 25-19.

Molly Haggerty and Madison Duello led the Badgers with double-digit kills – 11 and 10, respectively – but junior All-American Dana Rettke made headlines with her ninth and final kill of the match, the 1,000^th of her career. Grace Loberg also added nine kills, followed by Danielle Hart with seven.

The Badgers were able to control the match with efficiency, hitting their second best this season - .391 (47 kills – 11 errors – 92 attempts) to Northwestern's .207 (33–15–87).

Wisconsin's front row for the most part stifled the Wildcats' attack, as Sydney Hilley and Dana Rettke both finished with match-high five blocks, followed by Danielle Hart with four.

Northwestern freshman Temi Thomas-Ailara was the one source of trouble for the Badgers defense, tallying 17 kills in the match.

The Badgers edged Northwestern in digs (31-25), as senior libero Tiffany Clark anchored the Wisconsin defense with eight saves.

Not just your average point...

Congratulations to our All-American @dana_rettke, who just passed 1,000 career kills!

And she's only a junior? 🥴 Sheeeesshhhh!!#Badgers pic.twitter.com/OM0aTOdvTT
— Wisconsin Volleyball (@BadgerVB) October 10, 2019

Straight from the Court

"I didn't think we applied any service pressure outside of Dana (Rettke) in the first set, but I thought that improved as the match went on. They do a lot of scheme blocking, and I thought Syd (Hilley) was tracking what was going on and putting people in really good positions.

On Dana Rettke reaching 1,000 career kills:

"The thing that jumped out at me wasn't 1,000, it was the fact that a middle blocker got there the second fastest. The fact that you've got a middle who's taking that many swings and getting that many kills, something usually reserved for your pin hitters, means that there's some decent ball control players and a pretty good setter that she's been able to play with. She's had a lot of great matches and she's got a lot of great matches in front of her." – Head Coach Kelly Sheffield

Notes to Know

The Badgers hit .391 on the night, their second-highest hitting percentage of the season.
With her ninth kill of the night, which came in the third set, junior Dana Rettke recorded her 1,000th career kill. The 6-foot-8 middle blocker became the second-fastest UW player to reach the grand mark.
Wisconsin has won five straight matches, its longest winning streak of the season.
UW had one of its most balanced offense performances of the year with five hitter putting away seven-or-more kills. Molly Haggerty led Wisconsin with 11 kills while Madison Duello added 10 kills. Dana Rettke and Grace Loberg both had nine kills while Danielle Hart added seven kills.

Up Next

Wisconsin comes back home to face sixth-ranked rival Minnesota on Sunday. The match will be live on Big Ten Network at 3 p.m. CT from the Field House.