The No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team made quick work of the Maryland Terrapins on Friday, defeating them 3-0 in a match sweep.
The Badgers performed at their peak for most of the match, including setting the tone early in the match. They raced out to a 10-1 lead, letting fans in College Park know it would be a quick evening. A 5-0 run right after gave Wisconsin a commanding 16-1 lead and made the rest of the set a mere formality.
The Badgers took a little while to finish it off but ended up winning the set 25-10.
Maryland was more competitive in the second set. The Badgers jumped out to a 5-0 lead, similar to the first set, and while the Terrapins didn’t make a huge dent in the Badgers’ lead, they hung around to make the ending interesting.
Trailing 23-18, the Terrapins went on a 3-0 run to close Wisconsin’s lead to 23-21. Sarah Franklin single-handedly made sure Maryland didn’t get any further and notched two kills to hand Wisconsin a 25-21 win in the second set.
The third set resembled the first set as the Badgers got out to a big lead early and didn’t look back. They went up 11-1 almost immediately, eventually extending their lead to 17-4 to put the game out of reach. CC Crawford ended the match with a kill to secure a 25-9 set win and a match sweep for Wisconsin.
The Badgers improved to 23-1 and 14-1 in the conference. Wisconsin was without Anna Smrek on Friday, but they were able to adjust fairly easily in spite of her absence.
With this victory, head coach Kelly Sheffield now has the most Big Ten wins in Badger volleyball history.
Sheffield said after Friday’s game he was pleased with how his team adjusted without Smrek.
“We started out really well in all three sets, and I think that was kind of the key… I loved how we were scrambling the entire match,” he said. “I was real proud with a new lineup."
Franklin led the Badgers with 10 kills followed by Devyn Robinson and Carter Booth, who both registered nine.
