BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Despite a slow start, the No. 1-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team rallied to remain undefeated on the season. The Badgers (7-0, 7-0 B1G) swept Indiana 25-21, 25-17, 25-13 on Friday afternoon from Wilkinson Hall.
Wisconsin jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set but Indiana (2-5, 2-5) rallied to take a 6-5 lead. The set was tied seven times including at 16-16 as Indiana out-blocked the Badgers 8-1 in the period. A service ace by
Izzy Ashburn put the Badgers up 17-16, a lead they would not relinquish. While other hitters struggled early, freshman
Devyn Robinson put away five kills in the first set while hitting .400 (5 kills – 1 error – 10 attempts). Â
As the match went on, Wisconsin got better and better and so did Robinson. The 6-foot-2 right-side hitter put away nine kills in the second set on 10 attempts for a .900 hitting percentage, leading the Badgers to a 2-0 lead. Â
In the third set, the score was tied six times early before the Badgers went on an 8-2 run to take a 14-8 lead and complete the sweep.
After hitting just .140 (15-9-43) in the first set, Wisconsin hit better than .400 in the remaining two sets to end the match hitting .316 (44-14-95). The Badgers held the Hoosiers to an opponent season-low negative .022 (21-23-93).
Robinson finished with a career-high 18 kills, which ties for third on the UW single-match record list under 25-point rally scoring. No other UW player put away more than seven kills.
Wisconsin was outblocked for the first time this season, 10-9. Rettke led all players with seven stuffs while
Sydney Hilley added a season-high four blocks.
The Badgers finished with a 41-33 advantage in digs as
Grace Loberg had 10 saves. Hilley and
Lauren Barnes both added nine digs.
UW struggled from the service line, recording 12 errors and only four service aces. Rettke led the Badgers with two aces.
Straight from the court
Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
"There was a lot of going on in that match. There was a lot of adjustments going on and we were able to stay with it and figure it out. We had 17 errors in the first set (and) we had 13 in the last two (sets). That wasn't all on us. (Indiana) came in and we were having to respond to what they were throwing at us. That probably had as much to do with Indiana as it did with us. That wasn't just us having all kinds of problems, they were causing a lot of that. They were really changing up serving zones a lot on us. Â They weren't allowing us to find a rhythm, which is things we have to work on. I was certainly happy how we continued to get better and learning our opponent as the match went on."
On the first set: "Give credit to Indiana - 17 errors on our part out of their 21 points. Their blocking schemes are a lot different than anybody we've seen …. I thought we got a lot cleaner as the match was going on. We were able to kind of scratch and claw in the first set and squeak that out. We just got stronger and stronger as we were able to figure them out.
On Robinson: "Devyn started seeing a lot of one-on-ones. Early on, she got blocked a couple of times trying to go cross court but then she started working her line shot and then Syd (Hilley) started running her on some quicks. She was great, she was really, really good. The connection between her and Syd was fantastic.
"As we were going, Sydney was seeing what the blocking schemes were and that's where having someone like Devyn, who is able to terminate, if you're going to leave her one-on-one, she's going to do what she did."
Devyn Robinson
"I was just having fun playing with my teammates. We had a lot of energy and I was feeding off that. I'm just playing my game because I just love the game so much and I want to win for my team because we want to win as a team and I can't do it without them."
Up Next
Wisconsin wraps up its weekend series against the Hoosiers on Saturday. First serve is at 3 p.m. and will be streamed on B1G Network+. The match also airs in the Madison area on U 100.9 FM or anywhere using the iHeartRadio app.
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