The No. 6 Badgers (3-1 Big Ten, 12-2 overall) beat No. 16 Illinois (3-1, 11-4) in their fourth match of conference play. Saturday night’s match at Huff Hall was filled with intensity throughout all four sets with scores of 25-17, 25-22, 11-25 and 25-23.
Saturday night’s anticipated match continued the long series Wisconsin and Illinois have playing each other. The Fighting Illini have won 10 of the last 11 matchups and haven’t lost at Huff since 2007.
Illinois started conference play off strongly, defeating Maryland, Rutgers and Minnesota all in three sets. Redshirt junior outside hitter Jocelynn Birks has been a key player for the Fighting Illini, leading the Big Ten in kills and receiving Big Ten Player of the Week for Sept. 29.
Wisconsin went into Saturday’s match after defeating Northwestern Wednesday night in three sets.
Head coach Kelly Sheffield acknowledged the competitive fight Illinois gave in the match.
“This is a team capable of knocking off anybody,” Sheffield said. “This was two teams fighting like crazy.”
The fight had a sell-out crowd with 4,536 fans in attendance.
UW outplayed the Fighting Illini in three of the sets, but the third set got away from the team, as they were struggling to get the ball down.
“Sometimes those things happen,” Sheffield said. “Last year we lost at our place 3-1. The game that we won, we beat them 25-11, the exact flip of this.”
The three sets the Badgers did win can be largely attributed to redshirt senior middle blocker Dominique Thompson. Thompson contributed 14 kills and six blocks throughout the match. The crowd kept Illinois in the match as well as Birks with her 22 kills. Junior libero Taylor Morey led the Badgers in digs with 19, tying with Illinois freshman defensive specialist Brandi Donnelly.
The energy from the crowd in Huff did not hurt the Badgers, as Chapman killed the final two balls taking the match for the Badgers.
The Badgers return to the Field House this week, taking on Rutgers Friday night and Maryland Sunday Oct .12.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
