(UW ATHLETICS) MADISON – After a tight first set, the Wisconsin volleyball team swept Miami, 25-23, 25-15, 25-17, in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the UW Field House on Friday night.
Three Badgers finished with double figure kills, as Anna Smrek led the team with 15 kills. Sarah Franklin was not far behind, tallying 13, and Temi Thomas0Ailara finished with 10. Wisconsin (28-3) hit .316 (47 kills – 11 errors – 114 attempts) on the night.
The Hurricanes (18-12) were led by freshman Grace Lopez with 15 kills. As a team, they hit .171 (40 -18 – 129).
Spreading the defensive wealth, the Badgers also had three players passing double figures. Sophomore Gulce Guctekin put up a match-high 16 digs, as libero Julia Orzol added 14 and setter MJ Hammill recorded 12.
Pairing with her 12 digs, Hammill put up a season-high 26 assists, for her eighth double double. Izzy Ashburn also added 11 helpers.
Wisconsin just outblocked Miami, seven to six. After only one block in the first set, Wisconsin had two blocks in the second and four in the final set.
The Badgers trailed by as many as five at 14-9 before they started digging their way back into the first set. An attack error from Miami put it within one for the Badgers (18-17), but they couldn’t put more than one point together. Wisconsin tied it up at 21-all, followed by a kill from Franklin and forced a Miami timeout as the Badgers led by one. The Hurricanes held off three set points before another kill from Franklin gave Wisconsin a 25-23 first set win.
After eight ties, the Badgers took a 14-13 lead off a kill from Devyn Robinson and they ran away with set two. Wisconsin finished the set on a 12-2 run, including four kills from Smrek and back-to-back blocks from her and CC Crawford in that stretch. Wisconsin grabbed a 25-15 second set win.
In the third set, the block was strong for Wisconsin as Crawford and Smrek came up with a key block in the set to give UW an 11-7 lead. The Badgers used that momentum to propel them to a 15-9 lead and prompt a Miami timeout. Miami sided out just one point after the timeout with a block, but the deficit was too large to overcome as the Badgers took home another sweep, 25-17 and advance to the NCAA Sweet 16.
Straight from the court
Head Coach Kelly Sheffield On the the overall match: “We did a really good job of learning as we were going through the match of getting stronger. “I thought it was probably GG’s finest match as a badger all the way around. Caroline’s service was really instrumental and got the ball where we wanted and allowed us to stretch out the lead and a lot of positive block touches as were were going. Obviously, Anna took some really really nice swings for us tonight.”Sophomore Gulce Guctekin On the rest of the tournament: “We have goals and we want to achieve those goals and this is so exciting because we do this together and we’ve been in this journey together.
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