MADISON, Wis. - The No. 8 Wisconsin volleyball team earned its first sweep of the 2025 campaign, taking down UC Davis in three sets (25-23, 26-24, 25-15).
The Badgers (2-1) and Aggies (1-3) traded points back-and-forth right away in the first set, as UW was led by outside hitter Grace Egan, who finished with a hitting percentage of 1.000 in set one—tallying four kills. Freshman Addy Horner provided a clutch service ace toward the end of the set to push Wisconsin past UC Davis.
It was more of the same in set two, until the Aggies utilized an 8-0 burst halfway through to take a 16-8 lead. The Badgers bounced back quickly though, as they put together two separate 5-0 runs, guided by serving runs from freshman Madison Quest and Egan.
Egan finished with a trio of service aces in the match, two of which coming during the second set. In 14 total attempts, the Sterling, Illinois, native committed zero errors.
A kill apiece from outside hitter Mimi Colyer and middle blocker Carter Booth allowed the Badgers to win set two in extra points, as both were completed with an assist from setter Charlie Fuerbringer. Fuerbringer finished with a match-high 33 assists.
Wisconsin separated quickly in the third set, as the Badgers jumped out to a 6-0 lead—taking advantage of multiple errors turned in by the Aggies.
From there, Wisconsin used that cushion to coast to a 25-15 set three victory, notching a sweep in their first regular season game hosted at the UW Field House.
Colyer paced the Badgers in kills once again, racking up 13 on 38 attempts. Middle blocker Alicia Andrew continued to excel in the middle, as the senior provided eight kills on 11 attempts for Wisconsin—swinging at a .800 clip with zero errors.
Egan enjoyed a strong showing, accumulating 10 kills with six digs—finishing with a hitting percentage of .368.
Straight from the Court:
Head Coach Kelly Sheffield (on Grace Egan's serving): "It was a world-class serve that you guys saw tonight. A couple of things were amazing to me: One, she had that 100%, which is really hard to do, and two, in some of those serves, how they were able to handle even a handful of them was remarkable. The last couple of matches, you've seen a server that's gone back there with a whole lot of confidence, and when you've got a jump server with an arm like hers, it can string points in a hurry."
(On battling back in set two): "In the second half of the second set, I thought we got into a pretty big hole and you got a choice of how you're going to respond to that and I thought we started playing harder. We started getting a little bit more touches on the block, and then in the third set, we were just fighting and scraping and covering our attackers."
Middle Blocker Carter Booth (on responding to adversity early on): "We're a team of very competitive people, so Kelly knows how to push our buttons. He came in and said they're out-playing you, and that's all we needed to hear because they were, and that's never going to be acceptable to any of us. It was like 'come on now, you've got a show to put on and a job to do, go out there and do it."
Notes:
- The Badgers recorded six service aces against UC Davis. The six service aces marks a season high for Wisconsin.
- For the third-straight match, freshman libero
Kristen Simon recorded double-digit digs and finished with 12.
- Wisconsin finished with a .286 (44 – 14 – 105) hitting percentage – a season-high for the Badgers.
- For the second-straight match, right side hitter
Grace Egan finished with double-digit kills, tallying 10 against the Aggies.
Up Next: The Badgers will wrap up the Wisconsin Invitational tomorrow evening at the UW Field House, as they will duel against Chicago State at 7:00 p.m. CT. The match will be streamed on B1G+.
