CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Despite losing its first set of the season, the No. 1-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team remains undefeated with a 3-1 win at Illinois on Saturday afternoon. The Badgers (4-0, 4-0 B1G) downed the Illini, 27-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-12.

Starting left-side hitters Molly Haggerty and Grace Loberg returned to the UW starting lineup and carried the team to a win.  The duo combined for 25 of the Badgers' 55 team kills with Loberg leading UW with 14 kills while Haggrty added 11 putaways.  Dana Rettke added 10 kills, including five kills in the fourth set.

Despite struggling with their ball control, the Badgers hit .333 (55 kills – 14 errors – 123 attempts) for the match while the Illini (2-2, 2-2) hit .202 (48-22-129). Illinois' Megan Cooney led all players with 18 kills.

Wisconsin outblocked the Illini, 8-7, behind four blocks from Danielle Hart. Both team finished with 47 digs as the Badgers were led by libero Lauren Barnes, who had a career-high 20 saves.

Both teams struggled from the service line as Wisconsin had five aces and 11 serving errors. The Illini had seven aces and 10 errors.  

After winning the first two sets, Wisconsin trailed 20-15 in the third set. A 5-0 rally behind the serve of Giorgia Civita, tied the score at 20. The set would also be tied at 21 before Illinois went on a 4-0 run to win the set.

UW jumped out to a 14-8 lead in the fourth set and never looked back as Rettke and setter Sydney Hilley combined to lead the Badgers to a .538 (15-1-26) hitting percentage in the period.

Straight from the court

Jead Coach Kelly Sheffield
"It was a struggle for a good portion of the match. Our block early on was reaching and just not being real disciplined. There were some rotations we weren't able to score too many points and quite a bit of serving errors, not putting too much pressure on them.

"What I really like about it is I told them there was a lot of toughness involved in this. Almost everyone had a part of their game that they weren't playing particularly well. It was different for different people but they didn't allow the rest of their game to drop. And that takes some mental toughness.

"In the fourth set, we responded. You're interested as a coach to see how you're going to respond when things aren't going your way. This was just a lot of mental toughness this morning.

"We're learning. We're learning what each person can do in different scenarios. We continue to be a work in progress which makes it a lot of fun. We played a team that puts some different pressure on you, serving-wise they certainly put a whole lot of pressure on."

Up Next

Wisconsin returns home to host Rutgers in a two-match series next weekend in the UW Field House. First serve is at 6 p.m. on Friday and at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Both matches will be streamed on B1G Network + and also air on U 100.9 FM in the Madison area or anywhere using the iHeartRadio app.