(UW ATHLETICS) MADISON, Wis. –On a special senior night, the No. 7 Badgers concluded the regular season with a 25-19, 26-28, 25-19, 25-18 win over Michigan State on Saturday night in the UW Field House.
Seniors Sarah Franklin and Julia Orzol both finished with double figure kills, as Franklin recorded 23 and Orzol added 13. As a team, Wisconsin hit .262 (59 kills – 20 errors – 149 attempts) on the night.
Outside hitter Taylor Preston led the Spartans with 16 kills, and as a team they finished at .144 (51 – 28 – 160).
The Badgers (23-6, 17-3 B1G) got out to a strong start in set one, establishing a 9-5 lead. But Michigan State (13-18, 6-14 B1G) erased the lead to tie it up at 10-all. A Franklin kill kickstarted a 6-0 run for UW, highlighted by two service aces from CC Crawford to give the Badgers a 16-10 lead. The Spartans got it as close as 21-19 again but couldn’t break through, as Wisconsin scored the final four points to win it 25-19.
The Badgers picked up right where they left off, grabbing a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Michigan State responded with three kills in a row to take the lead at 6-5. The teams battled back and forth, trading points and runs. The Spartans held off two Wisconsin set points before winning the second set 28-26 and tie the match at one apiece.
Wisconsin regained its momentum in the third set, but back-to-back errors from UW tied it up at seven apiece. Wisconsin hit its stride with two blocks in a row by Charlie Fuerbringer and Carter Booth that led to a 6-1 run, as MSU called a timeout down 7-10. UW continued to build upon the lead, tallying nine total blocks in set three. The Badgers took set three 25-19.
Wisconsin fell behind early in the fourth set, but quickly tied it up at five-all. UW forced an MSU timeout after three kills, two from Franklin and one from Orzol, as they led 10-6. Wisconsin maintained a steady lead throughout the set. Julia Orzol tallied two service aces in three serves to give the Badgers a 22-14 advantage. From there, UW finished it out with a kill from Booth to win it 25-18.
Wisconsin finished with four players in double-figure digs, as libero Saige Damrow led the way with 19. Both Lola Schumacher and Charlie Fuerbinger added 12 and Orzol finished with 10. Fuerbringer added 46 assists to go with her digs for a double-double.
The Badgers outblocked the Spartans 17.0-6.5, as Booth tallied nine of her own. Fuerbringer added six and Crawford and Robinson both had five.
Wisconsin got hot from the service line with seven aces, three of them courtesy of Orzol.
Straight from the court
Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
On tonight’s action: “We ended the conference season the way we wanted to, lot of positive stuff tonight. Late night, late start and really pleased that the fans stuck around and honored a great senior class. It’s been a heckuva ride, and we’re certainly excited for the Selection Show tomorrow and then getting this NCAA Tournament party started.”
On the team’s block improvement in set three: “I thought as we started settling down and being able to get better reads and be more disciplined, then we were a lot better. Sometimes, you got to trust your training and trust your eyes and put your hands in good spaces.”
Senior Julia Orzol
On tonight’s approach: “We made sure to reset after each point, it was mentioned before the game. That’s when we play our best volleyball, when we are like goldfish with no memory. Not even short memory, no memory. Just always, always forward. It doesn’t matter if you just had your strongest or poorest rally, you have to always approach the next point the same.”
Senior Anna Smrek
On preparing for Senior Night: “We approached it just like any other match. We knew that all of our senior stuff is something we get to celebrate afterwards. We had work to do first, so we went into it thinking the same thing as always; be aggressive and play good volleyball.”
Senior Devyn Robinson
On the Block: “We focused on being low and over because they were getting to us. We were making a lot of errors when we went high trying to overpower them. But getting low and over and staying steady is something we really focus on. I feel like it paid off in the end.”
Notes to know
- The Badgers tallied 17.0 total blocks, the second-most as a team this season. On Oct. 20, the Badgers collected 21.0 blocks.
- Freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 46 assists, 12 dig performance against Michigan State.
- Outside hitter Sarah Franklin once again tallied double-figure kills for the 29th time this season, and back-to-back matches with 20+ kills. Franklin had 23 kills with just five hitting errors, and hit .316. Franklin also set a season-best blocks with five.
- Senior Julia Orzol tallied her 11th double-figure kill total with a 13 kill performance.
- Red-shirt freshman Saige Damrow started as libero for the fifth-straight match, while freshman Lola Schumacher served as a defensive specialist for the second-straight match.
- Senior CC Crawford tied season-best two service aces.
- Junior Carter Booth recorded nine blocks – second most this season.
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