The Wisconsin Badgers volleyball (1-7 Big Ten, 12-7 overall) had a roller coaster of a weekend, with a big loss to Indiana (3-4, 15-4) on Friday night and their first Big Ten conference win against Purdue (4-4 13-6) on Sunday afternoon.
The match against Indiana was definitely not one of the Badgers' best performances, as the third set score was 25-8. The offense just couldn't seem to get past the big blocks that Indiana was putting up.
""I feel like we weren't being very smart with our shots. They had a big block up there, kudos to them, they were closing the block pretty much every time, which is hard to hit around in the Big Ten,"" senior libero Kim Kuzma said. The Badgers had to put the game behind them and move forward, which they did, and achieved their first Big Ten win just two days later.
The Badgers came out strong in the first set, and had a 13-11 lead with a huge dig by Kuzma and a kill by senior outside hitter Allison Wack. Purdue fought back with blocks and kills, and found themselves up 20-16 on the Badgers. Coach Pete Waite called a timeout to stop the Boilermaker momentum, and get a start of their own energy.
This strategy worked, as kills from freshman outside hitter Elise Walch and sophomore middle blocker Alexis Mitchell got the Badgers within one point. The huge blocks put on by Wack, Mitchell, and sophomore middle blocker Mary Ording got the Badgers a win over Purdue, 25-22.
The second set was a close one, with the teams rallying back and forth. The Badgers found themselves down 17-21, and with a few attack errors from the Badgers and Purdue out-blocking 4-0 on the set, the Boilermakers won 25-21.
The third set started off with an ace from junior setter Janelle Gabrielsen. The set was again close, with six ties. After the tie at 11-11, the freshman right-side hitter Julie Mikaelsen carried the Badgers to a 25-16 win with five kills in the set. Freshman middle blocker Dominique Thompson also had two momentum-carrying kills in the set.
The fourth set was all Badgers, as they had an 8-0 run to get up 10-3 early in the match. Purdue wasn't going down without a fight and came back to get the score to 18-14. With kills from Wack, Mitchell, and Walch, the Badgers won the set 25-17 and got their first Big Ten win under their belts.
The Badgers were offensively led by Walch and Wack, who had 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Gabrielsen put up an impressive 50 assists, which is also her season-high. Defensively, the Badgers had four players to have double-digit digs; Kuzma led with 26 on the match. The Badgers had 69 digs as a team, whereas the Boilermakers only had 48.
""I just think that we were playing well. We were having fun out there and when we have fun, we play well and when we play well, we have fun,"" Kuzma said.
The Badgers will be on the road to take on Iowa on Friday and No. 19 Minnesota on Sunday.
