While Badger players and coaches came into a home and away tilt with Minnesota (3-5 Big Ten, 13-6 overall) unsure how they would feel about the process, the matches could not have worked better for them.
Wisconsin (7-1,16-2) followed up their sweep of Minnesota on Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with another sweep Saturday in front of a sell-out crowd at the Field House.
The Badgers dominated the Gophers statistically, leading the game in kills, attack percentage, assists, aces and total blocks. That lead in blocks against the Big Ten leader in the statistic didn’t fall lightly on the Badgers.
“Where we place in the Big Ten for blocks, we definitely want to change that,” redshirt senior middle blocker Dominique Thompson said.
Minnesota started off the match extremely strong in the first set by taking a 14-11 lead. However, the Badgers continued to stick around and eventually tied the game up at 19-19.
As was a trend for most of the game, sophomore setter Lauren Carlini held serve from there as the Badgers went on to win the first set 25-19.
“I had a little bit of a bounce back today and I was moving the ball around a little bit better,” Carlini said. “Our defense was doing great in our rotation so I think that is how I was scoring points in my rotation.”
Head coach Kelly Sheffield felt that first set was the gut check his team needed and really proved to him any concerns he had coming into the game were unfounded.
“My big concern as a coach [is] ‘Do you get comfortable when you beat a team a few days ago?’ and I didn’t see that at all,” Sheffield said. “They jumped on us right from the get-go and we just kind of stayed with it and battled and went on a late-surge there. I was real proud of what I saw in game one, even though it wasn’t clean for the first part of that.”
The second set featured more domination by the Badgers, as they jumped out to an early 17-9 lead and refused to look back. Wisconsin only allowed Minnesota to score six more points in the set as they went on to take the game 25-15.
Minnesota looked like it was going to force a third set with their play in the third. The Gophers came out hot jumping out to a 10-5 lead before the Badgers went on a run of their own.
Wisconsin went on an 8-1 run to take a 13-11 lead that they were not going to give up. The Badgers continued to build their lead, which was highlighted by two Thompson kills to go up 21-17. The Gophers were only able to tally one more point as the Badgers took the third and decisive set 25-18.
As has become the Badger way, the team wasn’t wrapped up in their seven-game winning streak or their back-to-back sweeps of Minnesota, but rather what to take away from this single game.
“We’re not patting ourselves on the back at all; that’s not what we’re doing,” Sheffield said. “Down in the locker room just then, it’s very similar to what it usually is—this is what we did well; this is what we’ve got to get better at.”
One thing that was not lost on Wisconsin was playing in front of another sell out crowd.
Coach Sheffield couldn’t have put it in a more simple but complete way when he said, “I think it’s just fun,” said Sheffield. “I think that’s the most honest way of saying it.”
Next up for the Badgers will be Iowa at home Wednesday and Nebraska at home Sunday.
