MADISON -- The No. 1 Wisconsin volleyball team beat No. 24 Tennessee on Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House in a five-set battle. The Badgers won the home opener 25-16, 25-23, 18-25, 20-25, 15-13.

Wisconsin got off to a strong start in the first set, with a 5-0 serving run from Julia Orzol to go up 6-3. After dropping one point, MJ Hammill came into the match and ran six-straight serves, as the Badgers took a commanding lead,12-4. Through the two service runs, Sarah Franklin tallied five kills. Tennessee then strung together a few of their own runs and brought it within two points (15-17). From there, the Badgers took control and only allowed the Volunteers one more point, taking the set 25-16. UW finished the first set with 18 kills. 

The Badgers earned a 25-23 second set win and went up 2-0 in the match, but Tennessee fought back and took the next two sets, to force five sets. 

The Badgers came out strong in the final frame and scored four straight points, and took a commanding 6-1 lead. Carter Booth came alive with two blocks and a kill in that six-point span. Tennessee came back to tie it up at 10-all. It was a back-and-forth battle to the end. Julia Orzol had a service ace at 12-all to take the lead (13-12). but Tennessee fought off one match point until Sarah Franklin put the match away with a kill on the outside. 

Franklin led the way on offense with 23 kills. Devyn Robinson finished with 15 kills, Carter Booth tallied eight, while Anna Smrek and Temi Thomas-Ailara each added seven kills as well. Wisconsin hit .306 on the day (62 kills - 16 errors - 147 attempts) and held Tennessee hit .205 (64 - 30 - 166). Morgan Fingall led the Volunteers with 22 kills. 

The Badgers out-blocked Tennessee 16.0-6.0. Booth had a match-high with seven blocks, while Crawford added six and Robinson put down five balls. Hammill and Ashburn both recorded double-doubles, as Hammill finished with 16 assists and 12 digs, while Ashburn put up 31 helpers and tallied 11 digs. 

Straight from the court

Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
On how the match went: "You're certainly happy with the win against a really good team and there are certainly things for us to learn and continue to grow moving forward."
On hitting: "Our pins hit for a high percentage and they were taking a lot of out-of-system swings with the defense set up and we got the attackers to be able to do that...It's hard to out-hit a great opponent and still come out and win when you look at the serve and passing what it was."

Setter MJ Hammill
On the fifth set and what helped turned things around for the team today: "Like Kelly said, that's a great team over there and as soon as you, lose that momentum, it's really hard to get it back. The focus is just go out there and play our game, play badger volleyball and just like Sarah said, you know, it's a short set. You have 15 points and that's what we train for. That's what we love.That's what we do."

Outside hitter Sarah Franklin
On the impact of the home crowd: "There's nothing like the Field House, I'll say it every day. It's fun to have this environment, it's so loud and we're really used to this type of crowd now. I love when everyone's on their feet and rooting for you because, it gets the other team a little bit and you can just feed off that energy really easily. It's so fun to play in the field house."

Notes to know

• This is the fourth match this season where the Badgers collected double-digit blocks, and the second most (16) since Arkansas on August 30. 
• Sarah Franklin recorded double-figure kills for the eighth straight match, dating back to last season. She had a season-high 23 kills against the Volunteers, her 12th career match over 20 kills.
• MJ Hammill picked up her third-straight double-double with 16 assists and 12 digs.
• Julia Orzol has recorded 10-plus digs in all five matches this season after a team-high 13 saves today.
• The Badgers improve to 5-0 on the season, the seventh time in the last 11 years under head coach Kelly Sheffield.
• Wisconsin has hit .300 or better in four of five matches this season.

Up next

The Badgers will host Arizona on Thursday night and Miami on Friday night at the UW Field House. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. The Arizona match will be broadcasted in FS1 and Miami on B1G+.