[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The Wisconsin volleyball team took a giant step forward in its maturation process by shocking the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers 3-2 Saturday night. The Badgers (15-5, 9-3) avenged a 3-0 loss in Minneapolis Oct. 8 by upsetting the Gophers (21-3, 10-2) by scores of 30-27, 20-30, 28-30, 30-27, 17-15. In doing so, UW extended its winning streak to seven matches and dealt UM its first loss since Oct. 1.

“I’m just thrilled with this win,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. “It’s a huge win for our team and the progress we’ve been making over the course of the season.”

Led by five kills from senior Jill Odenthal, the Badgers captured the match’s opening game by holding off a late charge from the Gophers.

Minnesota wrestled the momentum away from the home team, though, by taking the next two games. The Gophers hit .394 in game two to even the match at one game apiece then grabbed a 2-1 lead by taking game three.

“I think they really hung in there when early in the match Minnesota’s hitting percentage was way higher than ours,” Waite said of his team. “We started touching some of the balls at the block and slowing them down a little bit.”

Down two games to one, UW showed its resolve in game four. After trailing early on, Wisconsin fought its way back into the game with a 9-2 run that saw the Badgers tie the score on a Maria Carlini kill and eventually take a 23-17 lead. Jill Odenthal put down game point, and the Badgers lived to see a fifth game.

“Tip of the cap to Wisconsin,” Minnesota head coach Dr. Mike Hebert said. “They played a very, very sound match. I thought their schemes, offensively and defensively, to try to exploit our vulnerabilities worked.”

With momentum and a raucous crowd of 5,136 on their side, the Badgers stormed out to a 7-3 lead in the decisive fifth game, forcing a Gopher time out. Minnesota regrouped and tied the score at 9-9, only to see Wisconsin tally the next two points on a Carlini kill and an attack error by Martin.

The see-saw battle continued when the Gophers came back to knot the game at 13-13, only to see Weidner put down a kill, allowing the Badgers to serve their first of three match points. After two unsuccessful bids, Carlini placed match point in the back left corner, giving UW its first win over Minnesota since Nov. 17, 2001.

Freshman setter Jackie Simpson, who did not start the earlier meeting with the Gophers, recorded a career-high 75 assists in running the Badgers offense.

“It all goes back to our defense and then our serve receive that we’ve been working on really hard,” Simpson said. “The passers were doing their job, and it makes my job a lot easier: get some good sets out to the hitters so they can put some balls down. It was fun.”

Leading the Wisconsin hitters was Sheila Shaw, who hammered 24 kills to go along with a .370 hitting percentage. Her total of 24 matched her career-best. Five of those slams came in the fifth and final game.

“I thought I had to pick it up and be an emotional leader out there and try to pick everyone else up with me,” Shaw said. “If we play with energy and intensity, we can beat anyone.”

Odenthal added a season-high 20 kills. The senior opposite hitter also hit at a .378 clip in the match. Carlini and Aubrey Meierotto joined Shaw and Odenthal in double-figures with 14 and 10 kills, respectively.

“I thought Shaw and Odenthal were as good as I’ve ever seen them offensively,” Hebert said. “There were some things they were doing that we didn’t have an answer for.”

Three Badgers totaled double-digit digs, spearheading a much-improved UW defensive effort. Libero Jo Wack popped up 22, equaling her career-best, and Carlini recorded a career-high 21, giving the sophomore a double-double on the night. Simpson added 11 saves.

“When we lost at Minnesota, we really learned a lot from that one,” Waite said. “We knew we had to work on our defense if we were to have any shot at all at them. That was the main focus of our practices every day.”

Minnesota was led by 29 kills from Erin Martin and 21 from Trisha Bratford.

Friday night, the Badgers tuned up for the Gophers by sweeping the Iowa Hawkeyes 3-0. Weidner led the way with 13 kills as Wisconsin rolled 30-18, 30-17, 30-20. Next up for UW is a Wednesday home match with Northwestern. Wisconsin is in sole possession of fourth place in the Big Ten, one match behind Minnesota and Penn State, which are tied for second place behind conference leader Ohio State.