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Another down weekend for top-ranked Wisconsin volleyball

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The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s volleyball team was supposed to return from a two-week COVID pause with a scheduled two-game Big Ten series against Northwestern at the UW Field House this Friday and Saturday.

Now, the Badgers will get another weekend off, this time because of a pause in the Wildcats’ team activities.  The decision to postpone was mutually agreed upon and the schools will work with the Big Ten Conference to identify rescheduling options.

The Badgers are now scheduled to return to action next week when they take on No. 5 Minnesota in a home-and-home series.  The home match against the Gophers has been moved to March 18 at 7 p.m.  Wisconsin will travel to Minnesota on March 21 for a 7 p.m. match from the Maturi Pavilion.  Both matches will air live on the Big Ten Network.

Wisconsin Volleyball Pauses Team Activities

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The top-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team will pause all team-related activities for at least 14 days due to a number of COVID-19 cases within the Badgers program.

“For the safety of our student-athletes, we are pausing all team activities,” UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said.  “Our athletes are taking all necessary precautions to keep everyone in the program safe.  We’re really looking forward to resuming team activities when appropriate.”

The Badgers were scheduled to face 4th ranked Nebraska in a Friday-Saturday series at the UW Fieldhouse this weekend.  That series, as well as the March 5-6 series against Iowa have both been postponed.

 

Wisconsin Volleyball ranked #1 in AVCA Preseason Poll

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Badger Coach Kelly Sheffield (File Photo) – Courtesy of UW Athletics

The Wisconsin women’s volleyball team drew the number-one ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) preseason poll, released on Tuesday.

The Badgers finished the 2019-20 season as national runner-up and ranked second.

Texas is ranked second and Stanford third in the preseason poll.  The Big Ten has five other schools ranked in the top 25, including Nebraska (5th), Minnesota (7th), Penn State (9th), Purdue (13th) and Michigan (24th).

In-state rival Marquette is ranked 20th in the preseason poll.

The Badgers will open their season against Purdue Jan. 22 & 23 at the UW-Field House.  Start times haven’t been released yet.

 

Badgers claim Big Ten Volleyball title, will host NCAA 1st and 2nd round matches

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Wisconsin Volleyball – File Photo

The Wisconsin Badger women’s volleyball team captured the Big Ten title outright after sweeping Rutgers on Saturday and seeing Minnesota knock off Penn State.

For the seventh-straight season and the 23rd time in program history, the Badgers earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.  The Badgers were selected as the No. 4-seed in the tournament and will host first and second round matches on Friday-Saturday in the UW Field House.

UCLA (18-11) takes on Notre Dame (19-9) in the opening first-round match on Friday at 4:30 p.m. before Wisconsin (22-6) faces off against Illinois State (22-11) at 7 p.m.  First-round winners advance to the second round of the tournament on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Field House.

The Badgers hold a 46-22 (.676) all-time record in the program’s 22 NCAA tournament appearances.  UW [Read more…]

Badger volleyball off to 4-0 start

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The eighth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team captured the HotelRED Invitational after knocking off High Point Sunday night at the UW Field House.  The Badgers dropped the first set but won the next three, 23-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-17, to hand the Panthers their second loss of the day.

Wisconsin (4-0) hit an impressive .328 (53 kills – 9 errors – 134 attempts).  Dana Rettke led the Badgers with 16 kills while Molly Haggerty added another 10.

The Badgers recorded a season-high 17 blocks led by middle blockers Dana Rettke and Tionna Williams with nine and eight respectively.

The Badgers knocked off second-ranked Texas just one day earlier.

Wisconsin sold out their second straight match of the season at 7,052 fans in attendance, which ties for fifth on UW single-match attendance list.  Wisconsin has sold out the Field House 14 straight times.

Badger volleyball ranked 9th in preseason coaches poll

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For the fifth straight year, the Wisconsin volleyball team opens the season among the top-10 teams in the nation.  The Badgers are ranked No. 9 in the 2018 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top-25 preseason poll, released on Wednesday.

It is the 10th time in program history that UW is ranked in the top 10 and the fifth-straight year under head coach Kelly Sheffield.  Wisconsin was ranked fourth in 2016, tied for fifth in 2015, sixth in 2014 and seventh in 2017.

Stanford leads the preseason poll after advancing to the national semifinals in 2017.  Reigning NCAA champion Nebraska ranks second, followed by Texas, Minnesota and Kentucky.  Penn State is sixth, followed by Florida, BYU, Wisconsin and Southern California. [Read more…]

Volleyball Badgers remain undefeated

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Badger Volleyball

The 5th ranked Wisconsin women’s volleyball team dropped a set for the first time this season, but rallied to knock off in-state rival Marquette 19-25, 25-13, 25-21, 26-24 in the first round of the Badger Classic on Thursday night in the UW Field House.

The Badgers remain unbeaten on the season, improving to 8-0.  Marquette falls to 5-5.

Senior Kelli Bates led the Badgers with 17 kills.  Sophomore M.E. Dodge had a match and career-high 21 digs.

Wisconsin hit .254 (50 kills – 18 errors – 126 attempts) while the Golden Eagles hit .159 (50-27-145).  Wisconsin outblocked Marquette 13-10 behind seven blocks from Dana Rettke.

The Badgers wrap up tournament play on Saturday when they take on Southern Mississippi at 7 p.m. in the UW Field House.

7th ranked Volleyball Badgers open season with a win

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Sydney Hilley

The freshman duo of Sydney Hilley and Dana Rettke led the 7th ranked Wisconsin volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-19, 26-24 sweep of Louisville in the first round of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in the UW Field House on Friday night.  UW opened its season with a win for the second straight season and for the fourth time under fifth-year head coach Kelly Sheffield.

Hilley finished with 36 assists and added four kills, three digs and one block.  In Hilley’s first start running the Badger offense, Wisconsin hit .320 (42 kills – 11 errors – 97 attempts) while holding Louisville to .171 (39-21-105).

Rettke led all hitters with 15 kills while hitting .500 (15-3-24).  the 6’8 middle blocker also had a match-high six blocks.  Wisconsin outblocked the Cardinals 8-6.

Sophomore M.E. Dodge had a team-high 10 digs.

The Badgers wrap up the Challenge on Saturday night at 7:30 against 11th ranked North Carolina (0-1).  The Tarheels lost their opener last night at Minnesota.

Volleyball Badgers fall short of Big Ten title

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motion-wThe third-ranked Wisconsin women’s volleyball team had a two-sets to one lead at second-ranked Minnesota but fell to the Gophers 25-22, 17-25, 25-11, 17-25, 8-15 in Minneapolis on Saturday night.

A Wisconsin (25-4 overall, 17-3 Big Ten) win would have given them a share of the Big Ten Championship with Nebraska.  The Cornhuskers ended up winning the title outright by knockoff off Michigan.

“We gave it a heck of a run there,” UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said.  “Like I told our team, I think we showed  how far we’ve come since the previous time that we played them and we can continue to get better.

After Minnesota tied the match at a set apiece, the Badgers came up with a dominating 25-11 third set win.  They held the Gophers to their lowest point total of the season.

But the Gophers answered with a strong fourth set, winning 25-17 to force a fifth and deciding set.

The Gophers took control immediately and pulled away for a 15-8 win on Senior Night in Minnesota.

The Badgers now look ahead to the postseason, expecting to hear their name called when the NCAA volleyball championship bracket is announced on Sunday.

The 64-team bracket for the 2016 NCAA Volleyball Championship will be announced at 8 p.m. Sunday night on ESPNU.

 

Badger women’s volleyball wins 10th straight

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motion-wThe third-ranked Wisconsin women’s volleyball team closed out regular season home play with a 25-15, 22-25, 25-16, 25-7 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Wednesday night.

Wisconsin’s four seniors, Lauren Carlini, Tori Blake, Romana Kriskova and Haleigh Nelson were honored after the match and many of the sold out crowd of 6,012 were on hand to show their appreciation.

The win marks the 110th win for the senior class, ranking third in UW program history.

Wisconsin (25-3, 17-2 Big Ten) is tied with Nebraska for the Big Ten lead with one match to go.  The Badgers can win a share of the Big Ten title if they can knock off the second-ranked Minnesota Gophers in the Twin Cities on Saturday night.

The Badgers will take a 10-match winning streak into that contest on Saturday.