The sixth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team ended its regular season with a win and now must wait until Monday to find out where it will be seeded in the NCAA Tournament. The Badgers (25-3, 19-1) solidified their Big Ten Conference Championship with a 30-18, 30-18, 30-26 win at Purdue (4-24, 1-18).
Wisconsin, which extended its winning streak to seven matches and 18 games, ties the 1997 team for the best Big Ten record in UW program history at 19-1.
“Overall, it was a good team effort,” said UW coach Pete Waite. “We were able to frustrate Purdue, and they started breaking down part way through the first game. They were struggling quite a bit.”
The Badgers dominated the match, hitting .313 percent and holding the Boilers to .107 percent. Wisconsin had 52 kills, including a match-high 15 from Sherisa Livingston. Erin Byrd added 12 kills.
Lizzy Fitzgerald put up 37 assists and added seven kills on eight attempts with only one error for a .750 hitting percentage. Livingston hit .458 percent.
Wisconsin also used strong defense to halt Purdue’s attack. The Badgers had 53 digs, including double figures from Byrd (12), Jill Odenthal (11) and Sara Urbanek (11). Five block assists from Livingston aided Wisconsin to 6.5 team blocks, while Purdue tied a season-low for UW opponents with only two blocks.
Led by four service aces from Lori Rittenhouse, the Badgers had nine team aces and were aced only four times.
“We were able to play a couple of different people in the line-up and still did pretty well,” said Waite. “We’re happy to get the win and finish as Big Ten champs and be ready to move on to the NCAA play-offs now.”
Wisconsin jumped out to an 8-3 lead in Game 1 behind three kills from Byrd. Purdue cut it to two (10-8), but behind the serve of Rittenhouse, the Badgers outscored the Boilermakers 6-1 to go up 16-9. Purdue would cut it no closer than six (19-13) as Wisconsin kept its game-winning streak alive.
In Game 2, Rittenhouse again sparked the Badgers from the service line. She had two service aces in guiding Wisconsin to a 6-0 lead. The Boilermakers would get no closer than four (7-3) as the Badgers hit .421 percent for the period.
Game 3 was a much tighter battle, with Wisconsin leading by five points several times, including at 20-15. Badger hitting errors cut their lead to 20-18 and even closer at 24-23. Wisconsin led 28-24 off a Livingston kill but Purdue’s Joanna Lowry put down one of her 10 kills on the night and another UW hitting error cut it to 28-26. A kill by Jill Odenthal and a service ace by Fitzgerald gave Wisconsin the sweep.
Wisconsin will find out today at 2 p.m. where they will be seeded in the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship bracket.
“We find out Monday who we’ll be playing and hopefully find out we’ll be hosting,” said Waite.
If the Badgers are selected to host in the NCAA tournament, first- and second-round matches would be held on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, and a regional would be held on Dec. 7-8 in the UW Field House.
