Going into noisy, hostile and even wet environments didn’t seem to phase Wisconsin (4-2 Big Ten, 12-4 overall) as the Badgers extended their conference win streak to four by sweeping Rutgers (0-6, 3-15) and Maryland (0-6, 10-10) this weekend.
The Badgers faced Rutgers first Friday in New Brunswick, N.J. at College Avenue Gymnasium and won 25-15, 25-15 and 25-11 despite a rain delay from a leak on the court that delayed the game by one hour and nearly forced the game to be postponed.
“The message is to keep getting better,” said UW head coach Kelly Sheffield. “We’re playing a Big Ten opponent, and we saw last year when we came in here what can happen. I was happy with our kids because there were a lot of distractions here, and sitting around the hotel the whole day and then sitting around here for what felt like three hours before we got the match going was tough.”
Wisconsin had 36 kills, a .395 hitting percentage and four errors while the Scarlet Knights finished with an abysmal .031 hitting percentage.
“Probably the number that jumps out at me the most is four attack errors,” Sheffield said. “From an offensive standpoint, we played pretty clean and I think we’re doing a much better job with that these past few weeks.”
Wisconsin had a season-high seven service aces including three by senior libero Taylor Morey tying her career high and two by junior middle blocker Hayleigh Nelson.
Sophomore outside hitters Lauryn Gillis and Kelli Bates each had eight kills while Nelson and freshman middle blocker Tionna Williams had six.
Then on Saturday, the Badgers took down Maryland in College Park, Md. 25-20, 25-19 and 25-10 in a hard fought win to earn their third consecutive sweep.
“We battled. It goes to show you how tough this conference is that that team is 0-6,” Sheffield said. “It makes you feel like no lead is too big because those servers just got to the line and battled right from the start.”
Against the Terrapins, UW hit .390, and recorded 48 kills and nine errors while Maryland hit just .262 and recorded 39 kills and 12 errors.
Redshirt junior outside hitter Romana Kristova recorded her 1,000th kill while junior Lauren Carlini tied a career high with four service aces. Carlini also recorded a match high 40 assists and tallied three kills and four blocks.
The Badgers will be back at home this week to face Minnesota on Wednesday at UW Field House at 7 p.m.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
