The former Ohio State Buckeye will likely be a key piece for Wisconsin’s attack next season.
Although there is still time to go for the Wisconsin Badgers this season, head coach Kelly Sheffield is already hard at work in building the roster for next season.
Transfer outside hitter Grace Egan announced Wednesday night her commitment to Wisconsin. The 6-foot-1 former Ohio State Buckeye is a redshirt freshman, and will join the Badgers with three years of eligibility.
In her true freshman year in 2023, Egan played in 18 sets for the Buckeyes before suffering a season-ending injury and redshirting. This season, Egan had 2.53 kills per set for OSU and started 19 of the Buckeyes’ matches. She added 18 aces on the season and averaged 2.03 digs per set on the year.
The Sterling, Ill.-native saved her best performance of the season for the matchup against her future team, tallying 22 kills — her career high — and 10 digs for a double double in the match against the Badgers.
With the Badgers losing a wealth of attacking talent — Sarah Franklin, Anna Smrek, Devyn Robinson, Julia Orzoł and CC Crawford all will graduate — next season, this is a huge pickup in the portal for Wisconsin. Egan has proven she can play in many different rotations as an outside hitter in the Big Ten and will have multiple years of eligibility left.
Considering the attacking talent department, I’d expect UW would not be done in looking in the portal for some pieces. My guess is Sheffield would be looking for an experienced middle blocker or opposite hitter or two to fill in the gaps of a talented but inexperienced attacking stable.