Wesley Winterink/UW Athletics
The Badgers’ Grace Loberg in flight against Marquette.
On a weekend when Wisconsin Badgers fans needed some joy in their lives — the UW football team lost the Big Ten Championship to Ohio State, the men’s basketball team was trounced by the Buckeyes, and the men’s hockey team split a series with Minnesota — women’s sports came to the rescue.
The 19-1-0 UW women’s hockey team outscored Minnesota Duluth, 8-2, in a series win at LaBahn Arena. And then Wisconsin’s volleyball team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year, with a straight-sets win over No. 22 Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
Ranked No. 11 in the nation, the Badgers prevailed, 25-22, 25-20 and 25-23, going on a 5-0 run in the third set to take a 12-11 lead. But the Cyclones kept spinning back, and the lead continued to change hands before a series of kills by a pair of freshmen, Grace Loberg and Dana Rettke, secured the victory.
Wisconsin (22-9) heads to California for regional semifinal action on Dec. 8, where the Badgers face No. 4 Stanford (28-3). The Cardinal are riding a seven-game winning streak and have the distinction of having knocked Bucky out of the 2016 tournament in a five-set nail-biter at the UW Field House.
If Wisconsin can avenge that heartbreaking loss, the Badgers will face the winner of the Utah-Texas regional semifinal. The national championship game will be played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Dec. 14-16. Historically, the closest the Badgers have come is runner-up in 2000 and 2013.
It’s worth noting that of the eight Big Ten volleyball teams in the NCAA tournament, six still remain, including the Badgers, Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and No. 1 seed Penn State. Conceivably, Wisconsin could face conference competition en route to Kansas City.
That speaks volumes about the dominance of Big Ten volleyball, a fact not lost on senior Kelli Bates. “A lot of teams have been eliminated in the first couple days, and when you’re one of those teams standing here, it feels so good,” Bates told Madison.com after the Iowa State victory. “It makes you realize how hard you’re training and how the Big Ten has prepared us for this.… I’m so excited to go to Stanford and get another shot at them. I’m excited to see what this team can do out there.”
So are we.
