The No. 7 University of Wisconsin-Madison volleyball team took on the University of Illinois on Sunday and earned a solid 3-0 win. This win comes on the heels of Wisconsin’s 0-3 loss to the University of Nebraska in front of their home crowd on Friday and was much-needed to get their momentum going again.
Senior middle blocker Anna Smrek began the first set with an authoritative kill to get the Badgers on the board first. The Badgers led all set long and earned an impressive hitting percentage of 0.44% as a team. Despite a long back-and-forth rally toward the end of the first set won by the Illini, the Badgers stayed consistent and won 25-16.
The second set was much closer. The Illini went on a 6-1 run to take their first lead of the match, and they were the first team to reach set point after an ace by graduate student outside hitter Raina Terry. However, the Badgers stuck with it and rallied to tie the game at 24-24. Then, two blocks from fifth-year middle blocker CC Crawford and freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer turned the tide, giving the Badgers the second set, 26-24.
The Badgers continued their winning ways in the third set. They started off with a dominant 12-3 lead, and continued to lead the entire set just like they did in set one. For the final point, the Illini sent a tipped ball out of bounds, and the Badgers won 25-17 to close out the match.
Wisconsin tallied 49 kills on the match, led by fifth-year outside hitter Sarah Franklin and Smrek with 13 a piece and junior middle blocker Carter Booth with 10. It was a commanding performance for Wisconsin’s offense, but the defense performed well too, out-blocking their opponent for the 18th time this season.
Wisconsin also earned eight aces, 45 assists and 45 digs. Fuerbringer led in the assists category with 43, and senior outside hitter Julia Orzol led in the digs category with 12 digs. Orzol recorded double-digits for the seventh time this season.
The Badgers’ next match is at 6 p.m. this Friday at the UW Field House against the University of Iowa.
