The Badgers’ block tamed the Nittany Lions as Wisconsin cruised to a 3-0 victory.
Last weekend, a top 5 Nebraska Cornhuskers team came into the UW Field House and delivered a surprising sweep to the Wisconsin Badgers in front of their home fans.
What a difference a week makes.
The No. 7 Badgers (12-2 Big Ten, 18-5 overall) flipped the script against the No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions (13-1, 23-2), handing PSU its first loss in the conference in a dominant 3-0 win (25-23, 25-12, 25-13) that keeps the Badgers alive in the Big Ten title race.
Senior Anna Smrek, who struggled in the match against Nebraska, was a force for UW, firing home 13 kills with just one attack error and adding five blocks. Senior Sarah Franklin was even better, notching 13 kills with no errors as UW fought through a tough opening set before stomping the Nittany Lions in the next two. Senior Julia Orzoł also hit double digits in kills on the day with 11.
Franklin was the Badgers’ main weapon in the opening of the first set, tallying four kills that helped UW take an 11-7 lead that forced PSU’s first timeout. The Nittany Lions fought back thanks to some impressive serving by veteran outside hitter Jess Mruzik. The former Michigan Wolverine had two aces in a row to help cut the lead to 15-12 and force a Wisconsin timeout.
PSU chipped away at Wisconsin’s lead, but Smrek and Franklin kept UW’s noses in front with timely kills. Mruzik then had an ace that tied the first set 22-all, but Smrek got a kill out of a Wisconsin timeout to go up 23-22 before senior middle blocker CC Crawford had a block to give Wisconsin set point at 24-22, as UW got over the top with a 25-23 set victory.
Wisconsin’s block was a force against Penn State, as the Nittany Lions could not find their attacking footing. UW out-blocked PSU 11-0, and Wisconsin’s trees up front gave Mruzik nightmares. Their star outside hitter was kept in check the whole night as she struggled to get consistency with the Badger block in her face. At the end of the second set, Mruzik was hitting 5/6/31 to be held in the negatives. Although she was eventually able to tally nine kills, UW clearly slowed down PSU’s entire attack as the team combined for 22 total attack errors — nearly half unforced errors, or not caused by a block.
In the second set, some superb serving from freshman libero Lola Schumacher — and UW’s impressive block — helped the Badgers jump out to a 15-2 lead with a 13-0 serving run. Crawford and Smrek provided fits to the Nittany Lions, while Crawford added four kills and five blocks with a majority of her offense damage done in this run.
Wisconsin hit .577 in that frame with no attack errors, while PSU was held to -.029 as a team as the Badgers waltzed to a 25-12 second set victory.
Wisconsin jumped out to another early lead in the third set as junior Gülce Güçtekin notched an ace to put UW up 7-3 and force a PSU timeout. Senior Devyn Robinson got a solo block before junior Carter Booth stuffed an Izzy Starck attack that helped UW extend the lead to 16-6.
Despite the tight first set, the Nittany Lions looked rattled in the final two frames as the Badgers cruised to a statement win over Penn State. UW provided the team from Happy Valley with their first conference loss of the season, giving the Badgers a chance to get back in the conference title race. UW is still two games behind Nebraska, but the Huskers (13-0 in conference) will have to play both the Nittany Lions and Badgers at the end of the season. This win for UW shakes up the conference race.
Up next for Wisconsin is a west coast swing. The Badgers will take on the No. 20 USC Trojans (8-5, 16-7) on Thursday night at 10 p.m. Central before a Saturday night clash with the UCLA Bruins (5-8, 11-11) at 9 p.m. Both those matches will be on the Big Ten Network.