One step closer

Sunday, November 24

UW Field House

1:30 p.m.

Wisconsin Badgers

21-5, 17-1

Nebraska

23-4, 15-3

Nebraska

Wisconsin

Photo by: Tom Lynn

November 24, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score

Badgers sweep No. 6 Nebraska in quest for Big Ten title

MADISON, Wis. – In a battle for the 2019 Big Ten Conference title, the fifth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team took a big step closer with a sweep of No. 6 Nebraska on Sunday afternoon. The Badgers downed the Huskers 25-19, 25-22, 25-21, needing only one more win to clinch a share of the conference championship.

In the offensive battle, Wisconsin (21-5, 17-1) put on a hitting clinic, connecting on .333 percent (54 kills – 13 errors – 123 attempts) of its attacks with three players tallying double figures. Junior Molly Haggerty shared match-high honors 16 kills while Dana Rettke and Madison Duello chipped in 12 and 10 kills, respectively.

Nebraska's (23-4, 15-3) Lexi Sun also put away 16 kills but she was the only Husker to hit double figures as the visitors hit .241 (39-13-108).

Junior Sydney Hilley put up an impressive 48 assists in the match and added eight digs, just two short of her ninth double-double of the season.

The Badgers outblocked Nebraska, 8-4, behind five stops by Rettke and four from Duello, while also finishing with a 48-44 edge in digs. Lauren Barnes led UW with 12 saves while Tiffany Clark added 11 digs.

Wisconsin also did not give up a service ace in the match while scoring four times from the serving line. Barnes, Hilley, Clark and Izzy Ashburn all scored a service ace for the Badgers.

🧹 SUNDAY 🧹 SWEEP! 🧹@BadgerVB swept Nebraska for the SECOND time this season.

IS THAT GOOD?! pic.twitter.com/43rJ5rEuWf
— Wisconsin On BTN (@WisconsinOnBTN) November 24, 2019

Straight from the court

"I thought that was a great college volleyball match. There was a lot of high-level play on both sides of the net. I thought both teams applied pressure to the other. Defensively, I thought we were awfully good out of the gate. Our ball control was solid, we passed a pretty good number there. Syd (Hilley) was fantastic, really keeping them off balance with her play calls and who she was setting.

"Our transition game was pretty solid. I think that was one of the reasons why they had quite a few net violations. You apply pressure by keeping the ball off the ground and hitters working, setter making really good choices and keeping things balanced. I thought it was really hard for them to figure out what (Syd) was doing. I thought the effort that Molly (Haggerty) gave us, she has had a rough week being sick, and to take 43 swings took a heavy load for us swinging wise. We needed every one of them, it was a good team win against a really good team and we're going to enjoy this one right now before we start thinking about our next matches."
- Coach Sheffield

"Yeah, I'm not feeling too good, but I don't care. If I was feeling great instead of feeling like this, I knew I was going to play and I knew I was going to play for my team. I don't think I really let down too much, I didn't want anyone to notice that I was sick. I think we just played really good as a team and we didn't really think too much like Syd said about the future, we just played in the present."
– Molly Haggerty

Notes to Know

Wisconsin won its fourth-straight match over the Huskers, and completed a season sweep of Nebraska for the first time in program history.
The Badgers wrap up their home Big Ten season with a perfect 10-0 record, the first time since 2001 that UW is undefeated at home in conference play.
UW has defeated seven straight ranked opponents, dating back to Sept. 27.
Junior Dana Rettke has moved into 15^th on the UW all-time career kills list with 1,149.

Up Next

The Badgers wrap up the regular season on the road, traveling to No. 8 Penn State and Rutgers next weekend. Wisconsin takes on the Nittany Lions on Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT from Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania, live on the Big Ten Network. On Saturday, UW takes on Rutgers at 6 p.m. from College Avenue Gym in New Brunswick, New Jersey.