MADISON, Wis. – It was a defensive battle in the UW Field House Thursday night as the sixth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team swept Lipscomb, 25-19, 25-19, 26-24, in the first match of the HotelRED Invitational.
 
Leading the charge for the Badgers (6-0) was junior middle-blocker Tionna Williams, who recorded her first career double-double with a career-high 11 blocks while adding 10 kills. Her 11 blocks is also a Badger record under rally scoring. Fellow middle blocker Dana Rettke hit a match-high .571 (13 kills – 1 error – 21 attempts).
 
Wisconsin tied its three-set match blocking record with 16 stuffs while holding Lipscomb (4-3) to six blocks.  In addition to Williams, junior Madison Duello added six blocks while Rettke and freshman Sydney Hilley both chipped in five stuffs.
 
UW also had three players record 10 or more digs to hold a 46-43 advantage. Senior Kelli Bates had a match-high 13 digs while M.E. Dodge and Amber MacDonald each recorded 10 saves.
 
The Badgers hit a season-low .229 (40-15-109) but held the Bisons to .066 (36-28-122).
 

Quotables

"I really like that team we just played. They come at you hard. I think defensively they are really, really good, they're balanced. (Carlyle) Nusbaum had 10 kills in the third (set), and that was a lot to handle tonight. (They had) really good serves. Our team was really having to fight in serve receive.

"I thought we were hitting really well, but they held us down to a pretty low percentage—their backcourt was just fantastic. I don't know how many bombs that Grace Loberg put on them, and these guys are just picking up like they've got no issues at all. 

"I thought that our side, we came out very, very well defensively. I thought that we had a defensive mindset to start out, and we just battled. (It was a ) good win against a team that shows an awful lot of fight."

"They had a little bit of a size advantage (Tionna and Dana). And I think early on, they were kind of bunched—paying a lot of attention to these two guys. (We) stretched out their block a little bit, going elsewhere and then really kind of went to them a lot late.

"Tionna was having a lot of success hitting the line shot from back behind (the setter). Dana was having a lot of her success out in front of the setter with some quicks. We got our hands across the net, and got some blocks as well. Nice stat night for these two."
          -Head coach Kelly Sheffield

Notables

• The Badgers had 16 blocks to tie the UW's three-set blocking record under rally scoring.
• Tionna Williams collected a career-high 11 blocks and 10 kills for her first career double-double. Her 11 blocks was a UW three-set single match blocking record under rally scoring.
• Freshman setter Sydney Hilley recorded a career-high five blocks.
• The team took a season-high 109 attack attempts.
• The Badgers recorded a season-high 46 digs.
• Wisconsin is off to its eighth best start in program history with a 6-0 record.
• UW has now won 18 consecutive sets, ranking ninth all-time. 
   

Digging for a Win

Up Next

The HotelRED Invitational continues tomorrow with Lipscomb taking on Texas A&M at 6 p.m. Admission to that match is free. The Badgers face Texas A&M in the final match of the tournament on Saturday at 7 p.m.