It was rather fitting that Wisconsin's seniors led the No. 10-ranked Badgers to a 3-0 sweep (30-16, 30-22, 30-20) over the Iowa Hawkeyes Friday. After all, it was Senior Night.

Playing in their last regular season match in front of 4,998 fans at the UW Field House, Wisconsin's seniors all posted match highs — Maria Carlini with 18 kills, Amy Bladow with a .450 hitting percentage and Katie Lorenzen with 48 assists.

"It was great for the seniors to go out in their last Big Ten home match in front of a great crowd," UW head coach Pete Waite said. "Katie (Lorenzen) did a nice job running the offense."

Lorenzen started her first match of the season and contributed more than just assists, chipping in with three kills, two blocks and 13 digs.

After struggling over the last three matches, the easy victory on Senior Night was just what Wisconsin's volleyball team needed with just two more matches (at Indiana and at Purdue) before postseason play tips off.

"The timing of this match was great for this team," Waite said. "It was a great shot in the arm. It was just what they needed.

"I think we're getting back on track to where we want to be," he added. "We hit a bump in the road there, but we came out alright."

For Waite, it was quite an easy match to coach. Wisconsin was never in danger of losing in any game, cruising to the sweep over the Big Ten's 10th-ranked team.

"As a coach, I didn't have to do much," Waite said. "We played a solid match. We were much more spirited than we had been in the last week."

While no one meant to overshadow the seniors on their night, Wisconsin's defense certainly stood out.

The Badgers dug 69 balls — the eighth highest amount in UW history for a three game match — and had five players in double-digit digs. Junior defensive specialist Amanda Berkley led the way with a season-high 14 digs.

"Berks came up big defensively for us with a lot of plays," Waite said.

"Berks dug a lot of balls, covered a lot of balls and that is just really frustrating for the opponents," Waite added. "Their hitters were not able to put balls down. Some of their top hitters were hitting zero and [Berkley] was a big reason for it."

Typically a dominating team on the net, Wisconsin was out-blocked by Iowa 6-to-8.

However, the Badgers' serving and defense was so superb that the block was not much of a deciding factor.

"I thought we were serving tough and I don't think [Iowa was] able to run a lot of [its] offense," Waite said. "Even though our blocks were low, their hitting percentage was down. It's not like they had a high hitting percentage so it's not like that correlated in any way. It was just such a big difference in dig totals that blocking doesn't bother us as far as that goes."

But being Senior Night, it was only appropriate Bladow, Carlini and Lorenzen would end the match on the right note.

On match point, Bladow served and then dove for a dig, Lorenzen then set up the assist to Carlini, who swung the ball right into Iowa's block. But the ball fell out of bounds to give the Badgers the win and give the seniors a bittersweet feeling.

"It was bittersweet," Carlini said. "It was kind of emotional at the beginning just to have the three seniors out there.

"I cried, we cried, but to go out with a win — that was the best present the team could have given us."