NCAA Volleyball Tournament
Badgers vs. Texas A&M 1 pm, Hawaii vs. Nebraska 3:30 pm, 12/13; winners 5 pm, 12/14.
press release: The No. 4 Wisconsin volleyball team swept No. 13 Texas A&M in its NCAA Regional Semifinal match on Friday afternoon. The Badgers (25-6) have now won nine consecutive sets in the NCAA tournament, taking the match 25-20, 25-17, 25-23 over the Aggies (23-8) in the UW Field House.
Three Badgers finished with double-digit kills, led by junior Dana Rettke with 14. Molly Haggerty and Grace Loberg pitched in 12 and 10, respectively, as the Badgers hit .394 (50 kills – 9 errors – 104 attempts). Texas A&M’s Hollann Hans finished with a match-high 20 kills on 44 attempts to hit .250 (20-9-44).
The Wisconsin front line once again stepped up in a big way, outdueling the Aggies 9-2 in blocks. Rettke had five stuffs to pace the Badgers, while Danielle Hart and Sydney Hilley added four stops apiece. The Badgers defense held the Aggies to a .229 hitting percentage (42 – 17 – 109).
Both teams finished with 43 digs, but in very different ways. Camila Gomez finished with a match-high 23 digs for the Aggies, while no Badger finished in double figures. Nine Badgers recorded at least one dig, and five had five or more led by senior libero Tiffany Clark with nine saves.
Wisconsin also edged the Aggies 3-2 in service aces behind two from freshman Izzy Ashburn.
The Badgers advance to the NCAA Regional Final and will await the winner of the second semifinal match between No. 5 Nebraska and No. 12 Hawai’i. First serve will be at 5 p.m. on ESPNU, live from the Wisconsin Field House.
“First of all, congratulations on a great season for Texas A&M. They can stress you out in so many different ways. Hollann’s (Hans) serve, it's crazy. Their setter and her ability to attack is more frequent than anybody in the country, and you know how fast they are running that quick, so you're constantly kind of stressed a little bit by what they are doing, because they are just a very different-looking team than anybody else we've seen.
“I thought our team did a really good job of managing that, playing with confidence, knowing that they are going to do some things that are awfully special. Staying in there and not riding that emotional roller coaster, we didn't flinch. And when you're playing in these types of matches, you're going to play some teams that do some special things, and you've got to know that you do some special things yourself and just kind of manage. I thought we did a great job of that.
“When you've got confidence behind the service line, that's worth gold. Tiffany (Clark) has been feeling pretty good behind the service line for a few weeks now. I think she can go back there and hit a dollar bill if she was trying to. And Izzy (Ashburn) - our passers see that every single day in practice. That thing is just dancing and all over the place. When she's got confidence behind the service line, that can create havoc, as well. That's one of our strengths is being able to for six rotations going back there and apply pressure and you're not quite sure who is going to get on those runs. But if you just go back with the right mentality, it can be anybody.” – Head Coach Kelly Sheffield