After battling back from a two-set deficit, the Wisconsin women’s volleyball team’s comeback came up short as the sixth-seeded Badgers fell to 11th-seeded Florida 25-17, 25-23, 19-25, 22-25, 15-12 in the NCAA Regional Semifinals in Austin, Texas.
“it’s two teams that I don’t think anybody should hang their heads about. I thought it was a great, great college volleyball match,” UW Head Coach Kelly Sheffield said. “It’s the Sweet Sixteen and unfortunately somebody has to lose but it was one heck of a battle and I’m proud of my kids.”
Wisconsin (26-7) hit .275 (69 kills – 27 errors – 153 total attempts) and was paced by sophomores Kelli Bates and Lauryn Gillis. Bates led the Badgers with a career-high 21 kills while Gillis tied her career high with 20 kills.
Florida’s high-powered attack overwhelmed the Badgers as the Gators hit .349 (68-15-152).
After dropping the first two sets, the Badgers roared back against Florida to force a fifth set.
The Badgers lose only one player (Taylor Morey) to graduation, returning six starters and 12 letter winners for next season.
Robert Taylor, coach says
Don’t be afraid to sub. When a player is not playing well and the hitters were hitting like children and dinking way too much. If you see the team is playing tentative, just call a timeout and tell them that you want them to attack. I’d rather loose trying to take out the opposite team than loosing with those weak dinks. Also the hitters have not been trained to wait for the ball and see the block with the ball before they attack. They hit into the block big time. They never looked at the block. Also the back row could not dig at all. They were slow and I mean slow and were standing straight up when the opposite team hit and mostly in the wrong position on d. A big no, no. Kelli needed to be benched to get her head together. She made a lot of errors. And you should have known that subing out Gillis did not work. The sub has a history of hitting the net. I feel very sorrow for Lauren. She is an amazing player and deserves better. Oh, you should have changed the middle blockers in the beginning