NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – With its sweep over Rutgers in its final regular-season match, the fifth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team secured at least a share of the Big Ten Championship on Saturday night. The Badgers (22-6 overall, 18-2 Big Ten) took the match 25-14, 25-12, 25-21 over the Scarlet Knights (8-23, 2-18), and will await the results of the match between Penn State and Minnesota to decide whether or not they'll have to share the trophy.
Wisconsin ran through the match by dominating at the service line. The Badgers finished with a 10-1 advantage in service aces, led by three from senior libero
Tiffany Clark.
Izzy Ashburn,
Lauren Barnes and
Dana Rettke added two service aces each.
Two Badgers finished with double-digit kills, as redshirt junior
Molly Haggerty and junior
Grace Loberg shared match-high honors with 11 kills apiece. As a team, Wisconsin hit .367 (37 kills – 8 errors – 79 attempts) while holding Rutgers to .125 (31 – 19 – 96).
Defensively, the Badgers bested the Scarlet Knights in blocks (7.0-5.0) and digs (45-30). At the net, Wisconsin was led by four blocks each from
Madison Duello and
Danielle Hart, while
Lauren Barnes held down the back end with a team-high 10 digs.
Straight from the Court
"It's one of our two goals every single year so it feels good to have accomplished this during my time here. Preseason was obviously not how we wanted to start off the season, but our growth from those games and what we learned has helped us through those tough matches and playing all the top teams twice." –
Madison Duello
"I think this is just going to propel us forward into the tournament. We've learned a lot – we learned a lot even just last night – so to come back and win the way we did tonight was awesome and I was really proud of our team. Every single night in the Big Ten is a grind, it doesn't matter who's on the other side of the net. We've had to be mentally and physically tough, so to come out on top this year is awesome." –
Dana Rettke
"Beyond the match tonight, I'm just happy for our players. It's not a one or two night thing – winning a Big Ten title is 20 matches, it's a collection of everything. Having to play Minnesota twice, Nebraska twice and Penn State twice and going 5-1 in those matches – a few of them sweeps – and winning six of seven on the road in the middle of the season… it was a title that was well earned and there's a lot of excitement in that locker room right now as there should be.
"These things are earned during the offseason through sacrifices day in and day out. There's a lot of investment – not just the team, not just the coaching staff but all the staff around here, and of course our fans – about half this place was Badger fans tonight and they're still around not wanting to leave, so when we can reward them with a big goal of ours like this, of course we're happy about it." – Head Coach
Kelly Sheffield
Notes to Know
- Badgers win their first Big Ten title since 2014 and their sixth in program history.
- Junior Molly Haggerty recorded double-figure kills for the eighth time in the last nine matches.
- Wisconsin scored 10 service aces, its fourth time this season scoring on 10-or-more aces.
Up Next
The bracket for the 2019 NCAA Championship will be announced Sunday at 7:30 p.m. live on ESNPU. UW will be making its seventh straight and 23
rd overall NCAA tournament appearance. The Badgers are 46-22 in 22 years of the tournament, advancing to at least the Sweet 16 the last six years in a row.
