Defense keys Badger sweep at Illinois

Friday, November 11

Urbana-Champaign, IL

7 PM

Wisconsin Badgers

21-3, 13-2B1G

Illinois

14-12, 7-8B1G

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Wisconsin	25	25	25	3
Illinois	17	18	21	0

Photo by: Greg Anderson

Defense keys Badger sweep at Illinois

November 11, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score Boxscore vs Illinois

Volleyball wins sixth straight

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Strong defense led the third-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team to a 25-17, 25-18, 25-21 win at Illinois on Friday night. It was the sixth-straight win for the Badgers who improve to 21-3 overall and remain second in the Big Ten Conference standings at 13-2.

"I thought that was right up there with some of the best defensive play we've had in my time here," head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "I thought we were really, really good defensively tonight.

"Amber (MacDonald) really set the tone early. Some of those were (Naya) Crittendon bombs. I mean just bombs that she just got there and got up, and we converted off quite a few of those – big-time dig, set, kill. Kind of right back in your face.

"I loved the defensive intensity. I thought we did a great job of maintaining that as well out of the locker room, in the third as well.

The Badgers out dug the Illini 53-34 and out blocked them 9-8.

Three UW players finished in double-figure digs behind 15 from junior Kelli Bates. Freshman Molly Haggerty added 11 saves while MacDonald chipped in 10 digs, including seven in the first set.

Senior Haleigh Nelson led all players with seven blocks, including one solo. Redshirt senior Romana Kriskova added four blocks for Wisconsin.

UW's defense allowed Illinois to hit just .069 (28 kills - 20 errors - 116 attempts), the fourth lowest by an opponent this season. No Illini (14-12, 7-8) player had more than six kills in the match.

Wisconsin hit .268 (46-16-112), including better than .300 in the first and third sets.

Junior Lauryn Gillis led all hitters with 13 kills while sophomore Tionna Williams added 10 kills and a .421 (10-2-19) attack percentage. Senior Haleigh Nelson and freshman Molly Haggerty each added nine kills to the Badgers' balanced attack.

"(Illinois) is a really good blocking team and (Gillis) got blocked quite a few times early," explained Sheffield. "What I liked is that it didn't bring her down, it didn't bring really any of our attackers down. We got blocked quite a bit by them, especially that second set. 'Let's swing a little bit higher, let's look for some high hands, and not try to force it.'"

Senior Lauren Carlini put up 36 assists at setter and had of UW's three service aces.

UW jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first set as Gillis had three kills and Wisconsin was out digging Illinois 14-4. The Illini didn't have a kill until Ali Bastianelli put away an attack to make it 8-5 Badgers. Wisconsin led 12-7 before Illinois went on a 6-1 run to pull within one (13-12). A Nelson kill ended the rally and kicked off a 7-1 run to put UW up 20-13. The Illini would get no closer than six points the rest of the set.

Set two played out very similar to the first set with the Badgers going up early, this time taking an 8-2 advantage. Wisconsin held its six-point advantage through 10-4 before Illinois rallied again, going on a 6-1 run to make it an 11-10 game. The Illini remained within four points, pulling within one again at 15-14. Four kills from Gillis put Wisconsin up 21-18 before two blocks from Nelson and Kriskova keyed a 4-0 Badger run for a 2-0 lead in the match.

UW led by as many as seven points in the third set (16-9) with Illinois again making a mid-set charge to come within one (20-19). A Gillis kill started a 4-0 Badger run that included two blocks by Nelson and a Carlini ace. Illinois held off two match points before a kill from Nelson completed the sweep.

The Badgers play at Northwestern on Saturday, serving off against the Wildcats at 7 p.m. from Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois.