COLUMBUS, Ohio – The fourth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team dropped its first Big Ten Conference match of the season, falling at Ohio State 29-27, 25-20, 20-25, 26-24 on Friday night.
 
Wisconsin (16-5 overall, 12-1 B1G) hit .202 (60 kills – 27 errors- 163 attempts) compared to .170 for the Buckeyes but Ohio State (13-12, 6-7) scored on an opponent season-high 10 service aces and outblocked the Badgers 11-10.
 
UW finished with a seven-kill advantage on offense with four players tallying 10-or-more kills. Juniors Molly Haggerty and Grace Loberg put away 13 kills apiece while Madison Duello and Dana Rettke both added 12 kills. OSU was led by Gabby Gonzales and Elle Sandbothe with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
 
The Badgers also finished with an 80-71 advantage in digs as three UW players recorded 10-or-more digs behind a match-high 23 saves from senior Tiffany Clark. Freshman Izzy Ashburn added a career-best 14 digs while junior Lauren Barnes chipped in 13.
 
Sophomore Danielle Hart led all players with seven blocks while Duello contributed five stops.
 
Rettke finished with all three of UW's service aces.
 

From the Court

"We weren't on the attack from the very beginning behind the service line and they were. I thought (OSU) were really putting pressure – our passers were feeling a lot of pressure. It was the first time in a long time that we got totally dominated in the serve-pass game. I thought defensively we were playing hard, trying to work through some things but that part, we could never get going.
 
"We got blocked quite a bit but a lot of that had to do with we weren't passing that well. We had a lot of attack errors. It was an uncharacteristic match of our team. Hand it to Ohio State, they outplayed us.
 
"I thought we came into this match with a little bit of cruise control … we just weren't ready to take it to an opponent. There has to be a lesson learned. But a lot of our goals are still in front of us."

• Head coach Kelly Sheffield

Notes to Know

• Wisconsin snaps its school-record 12-match Big Ten season-opening winning streak.
• Ohio State scores an opponent season-high 10 service aces.
• The Badgers hit .202, stopping their four-match streak of hitting .300 or better.
• UW held its eighth-straight opponent to a hitting percentage under .181.
• Juniors Sydney Hilley and Molly Haggerty both played in their 300^th set in the Cardinal and White.
• Senior Tiffany Clark recorded her second-straight 20-plus dig match, upping her career total to 16 matches.
• Sophomore Danielle Hart recorded a career-best four digs.

 

Up Next

Wisconsin travels to Maryland on Saturday night. First serve is at 5 p.m. CT from the XFinity Pavilion in College Park, Maryland. The match will be streamed live on BTN+ ($).