The Wisconsin volleyball team won all three of its matches over the weekend to earn the North Carolina State Invitational tournament title, building on an excellent start to the season.
It was the third tournament championship that the Badgers have claimed this year, in addition to the Pepperdine Classic and North Dakota State Classic. Wisconsin finished its nonconference season with a superb 11-1 record.
The Badgers began the NC State Invitational against the host Wolfpack (8-2 overall) Friday night, and used a dominating first set and a strong 9-2 run in the second to take an early lead.
After dropping the third set, UW responded by winning the decisive fourth set 25-18.
Wisconsin opened Saturday play against Virginia Commonwealth (10-3), and preserved its momentum from the previous night with an overpowering first set, winning 25-14.
However, the Rams would answer in the second and defeat Wisconsin 25-15.
This early inconsistency parlayed into an exciting third set in which the Badgers came out on top, 28-26.
While the Rams would emphatically control the fourth set, UW finally put pesky VCU away with a 15-9 win in the fifth for a hard-fought 3-2 victory.
Later that night, the Badgers faced off against Colgate (7-5). The Raiders had begun Saturday with a thrilling 3-2 victory over NC State, but that success was short-lived.
Wisconsin steadily finished them off in a three-set sweep.
The match was marked by several long runs by the Badgers, including a 10-0 run that broke open the second set.
Redshirt junior middle blocker Domonique Thompson was named tournament MVP after recording 42 kills and 13 blocks over the weekend. Thompson, junior outside hitter Ellen Chapman and freshman setter Lauren Carlini were named to the all-tournament team.
“What I liked about every match was that Lauren [Carlini] and Dominique [Thompson] are getting a lot more comfortable with each other,” said head coach Kelly Sheffield. “This team will scrap. We don’t have a lot of firepower right now and hopefully the reinforcements will come but what we can do, we can play really, really hard.”
The Badgers fell out of the top 25 last week but are likely to reclaim a spot after a successful weekend.
Wisconsin begins conference play Friday night against No. 21 Purdue at the UW Field House.
