MADISON, Wis. – A balanced team effort led the fifth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team to a 25-22, 25-16, 25-15 sweep over Michigan State Friday night.
 
Wisconsin (14-3, 8-1 BIG) hit .337 (43 kills - 13 errors - 89 attempts) while holding Michigan State (10-10, 1-8 BIG)  to just .093 (26-18-86). Julia Orzol put away a match-high 13 kills while Danielle Hart, Devyn Robinson and Sarah Franklin added 10 kills each as Wisconsin had 17 more kills than the Spartans. Hart also led the team in hitting at .750 (10-1-12), including a 6-0-7 performance in the third set. 

Izzy Ashburn led the Badgers in assists, putting up 21 helpers. MJ Hammill followed with 11 assists to support the offense.
 
UW also outscored Michigan State, 4-3, from the service line with an ace coming from Orzol, Hammill, Caroline Crawford, and Gulce Guctekin.

Wisconsin used strong defense at the net, out blocking Michigan State, 10-8. Crawford led all hitters with eight blocks while Franklin and Anna Smrek followed with four apiece.
 
Wisconsin finished with a 34-30 advantage in digs with Guctekin leading all players with 11 saves. Orzol followed with seven saves for the Badgers.

The Spartans came out strong in the first set, staying close to the Badgers until late in the period. Wisconsin led 21-20 before two kills by Orzol and a service ace from Crawford gave UW a 24-20 lead. MSU held off two set points before another Orzol kill sealed the set win.

The Badgers recorded five blocks in the second set and four blocks in the third set to stop the Michigan State offense. The Spartans hit negative in both sets (-.069 in the second set and -.033 in the third set) as Wisconsin cruised to the win.

Straight from the Court

Head Coach Kelly Sheffield 
""It's really credit to our players. When you're playing different teams and they are running different tempos and ... their left sides are running sets to the pin and also coming inside, the right sides are attacking at the pins and coming inside so we are seeing a lot of changing in the attack points along with the tempo.
 
"Sometimes it just takes time for blockers to get in a rhythm with the offense that is going on on the other side and I thought we did that. It's probably a little bit more challenging when they have a coach that's ripping into them every other minute. They had to turn a deaf ear when I was speaking and they had to lock in on the approach routes on the opponents and they started to do a bit better of a job on that."
 
​​Izzy Ashburn
"As a setter, it's so fun to have so many options, have great back court, great passing, it just opens a lot of things up. It opens a lot up for our hitters too, just to have the confidence in every single hitter and every hitter coming off the bench and doing their job. I feel like it spreads so much confidence around when any person that has the ball we can trust that person… It makes my job hard though because everyone wants the ball. It's a good problem to have."
 
Danielle Hart 
"It was fun. All the hitters we have up there have success up there, and so they have to be respected by people on the other side of the net. That makes it great for openings for all of our hitters, I mean I had one-on-one's all night. That's credit to the hitters around me that are doing their jobs and hitting the ball on the floor. We're all helping together, it's all collective work. One person's success is because of other people." 
 
Sarah Franklin on playing her former team:
"It was nice playing against them, always nice to see some former teammates. They are a very good team and we just came into it like any other team so it was good to see them but they are on the come up and we respect that about them. I'm still in touch with a good number of them. It's nice to see them across the net, it's a little friendly fire."

Notes to know

• Wisconsin extended its winning streak to a season-best seven matches and its home Big Ten winning streak to nine matches.
• The Badgers held Michigan State to a team hitting percentage of .093, the fifth opponent this season to hit less than .100.
• UW recorded 10 blocks in the match, its 10th match this season with double-figure blocks. Junior Caroline Crawford had a match-high eight blocks.
• For the first time this season, all 17 Badgers in uniform played in a match. Senior Gabby McCaa made her debut in the Cardinal and White, playing one set tonight.

Up next

The Badgers head to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to face No.25 Michigan on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.  The match airs live on ESPN2 and can be heard on Fox Sports 1070.