The No. 6 University of Wisconsin-Madison volleyball team traveled to Los Angeles, California last weekend for a two-game road trip, adding two wins to improve their record to 20-5 this season.
Fifth-year outside hitter Sarah Franklin achieved a season-best hitting percentage on Nov. 14, and senior middle blocker Anna Smrek did the same on Saturday.
Thursday
Wisconsin competed against the No. 23 University of Southern California Trojans on Thursday, Nov. 14. The Badgers secured a win in straight sets, with scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-12. Both their offensive and defensive skills were on display, as the Badgers earned a .333 hitting percentage as a team while holding the Trojans to .079.
The first set began with a service ace for the Badgers from freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer, setting the tone for the match. Both teams traded points until the Badgers pulled away with two four-point runs. Senior middle blocker CC Crawford earned a big block over star USC outside hitter Ally Batenhorst near the end of the set. The Badgers’ dominance continued from there and they won the set 25-18.
The Badgers began the second set with a 9-4 lead, but the Trojans slowly eliminated the deficit to just one point, at 15-14. Later in the set, the Badgers went on a 4-0 run to bring them to set point, featuring kills from junior middle blocker Carter Booth and Franklin. Though it was a pretty close set, the Badgers won 25-19.
The third set started with a dominant 7-1 Wisconsin lead. Senior outside hitter Julia Orzol went on an impressive four-point serving run to contribute to this lead, which included two kills and two aces. Match point was an extended rally, but the Badgers came away with a 25-12 win.
Franklin led the team with 13 kills and a season-best .632 hitting percentage. She was named Big Ten Co-Player of the Week this week, and it showed in her performance.
Fuerbringer also earned a Big Ten honor this week as Setter of the Week, and she racked up 35 assists and nine digs against the Trojans.
The Badger block continued to show off as well with nine blocks on the game. Smrek led with six, Crawford earned five, and Carter earned four. Freshman libero Lola Schumacher was the defensive leader in the back row with 10 digs.
Saturday
Following their win over USC, the Badgers took on the University of California-Los Angeles team on Saturday night. Wisconsin fell to the Bruins in the first set but won the next three to take the game.
The Badgers were short-handed defensively, with both freshman libero Lola Schumacher and junior defensive specialist Gulce Guctekin out with injuries. Redshirt freshman Saige Damrow stepped in to play libero, and freshman Maile Chan played defensive specialist. As players who do not typically get much court time during matches, they welcomed the opportunity to show that their hard work in practices really pays off.
The Badgers struggled in the first set as they tried to find their footing with this new lineup. Their offense lacked efficiency, hitting just .265 as a team. The Bruins dominated in the second half of the set and sealed the deal with a service ace from freshman setter Kate Duffey. They won 25-20.
“I thought we got outplayed in the first set and then we were more disciplined and played harder defensively,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said in an article for BadgerExtra.
Wisconsin turned the game around in the second set, but it was a close contest. A few four-point runs helped the Badgers stay on top of the Bruins, and Fuerbringer had two service aces in a row. Crawford’s scrappy play at the net also helped energize her team. The Badgers eventually won the set 25-15 on a service ace from Orzol.
In set three the Badgers came away with another win, but it was much tighter. Though the Badgers were plagued with an abnormal amount of service errors all game long, set three saw their worst serving performance, with eight service errors. The Bruins weren’t able to capitalize on this, though. Wisconsin took the set 25-22 on a massive block of graduate student middle blocker Anna Dodson.
In the final set, Wisconsin got off to a quick start with a 4-1 lead that only continued to grow from there. Junior middle blocker Carter Booth scored an authoritative kill to bring up match point. Damrow then finished the job with a service ace to win the set 25-15.
Damrow earned 15 digs in her libero debut, and Orzol added 12. The setters for both Wisconsin and UCLA shined, with Fuerbringer tallying 47 assists and graduate student Audrey Pak tallying 43.
At the net, Franklin had 19 kills, and Smrek contributed 16 while also earning a season-best hitting percentage of .609. For the Bruins, junior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette had 20 kills.
The Badgers hope to extend their six-game win streak against No. 2 Nebraska on Saturday. The match is in Lincoln at 7 p.m., and it will be streamed on the Big Ten Network.
