With senior floor captain Maria Carlini out for the weekend with a foot injury, the No. 14 Wisconsin volleyball team (14-4 Overall, 6-2 Big Ten) was still able to rebound from a pair of losses on the road last weekend and remain in the thick of the Big Ten race with victories over No. 9 Purdue (30-12, 30-20, 31-29) and Indiana (30-9, 30-17, 30-27).

"I thought we picked up where we left off on Friday night just as far as our energy, and our quality of play and the high level," head coach Pete Waite said. "It was a great team effort, a great team win and a great weekend."

With a season-high 7,064 in attendance on Sunday, the Badgers came out and were able to dominate the Hoosiers from the first serve. In game one, with Wisconsin leading 6-2, junior Amanda Berkley was able to put the game out of reach early with her serving as Wisconsin went on a 7-0 run to make the score 12-2.

"[Berkley's serve] doesn't seem like anything fancy," Waite said. "She just gets back deep and bombs it. If you are on the receiving end of one of those things, you don't quite know where it's going. It's really hard for the opponent to get in a rhythm with the passers and the setters."

The Badgers were led by freshman outside hitter Brittney Dolgner with 15 kills. Taylor Reineke and Audra Jeffers also had double-digit kills with 12 and 11, respectively. Reineke lead the Badger blocker with eight rejections.

"[Our blockers] did a nice job adjusting, especially today," Waite said. "Our outside setup and our middles got some good hands on the ball. That just makes hitters doubt themselves when they see that wall up there in front of them."

The combination of the Badger's blocking and defense, which was led by Jocelyn Wack with 18 digs, helped Wisconsin hold Indiana to a .036 hitting percentage.

"Their top player, (Erica) Short, averages between four and five kills per game," Waite said. "For her to hit negative and only have six kills says a lot for the block."

Against the higher-ranked Purdue team Friday night, UW was again able to come out and dominate in games one and two.

"It was a great win for our program," Waite said after the victory on Friday night. "After coming off the two losses on the road last week, the team really worked hard to improve themselves and that's all we ever ask them to do."

The Badgers were able to outplay the Boilermakers in every aspect of the game — out-blocking, out-digging, out-hitting and out-serving them.

"They didn't bring their A-game," Waite said. "I know they've had much better matches, but that's the way it is in the Big Ten. You better bring your A-game because it is going to be tough out there every night."

Wisconsin, behind the serving of Berkley, was able to go on 9-0 run in game one and a 7-0 run in game two that put the games out of reach for Purdue.

"Sports are great that way. You just never know when you're going to be the one on the run," Waite said. "Obviously so far in the last two weekends at home our team has played at a high level.

"They have been very focused, very clean game. I think [our serving] put Purdue on its heels and [they] really didn't quite know what hit them."

Game three was a much more closely fought match as the Badgers had to rally from being down game point at 29-27 to close the match out. Back-to-back kills by Jeffers tied the game at 29 apiece, and junior Megan Mills ended the game two points later with the Badgers' sixth service ace of the game.

"I thought our serve receive was really solid tonight and our serving was tough, and that's really kept Purdue out of their offense," Waite said. "For us to out-dig them 48-33, that's a very good defensive team, so that says a lot for how hard our kids were working."

Even though the Badgers did out-dig the Boilermakers, Wack's NCAA record for double-digit digs ended at 80 matches as she finished the night with only eight.

With Carlini not playing Friday night, Waite turned to his freshmen to lead the team as Dolgner led all Badgers with 20 kills and a career-high five blocks. Caity DuPont, getting her first significant amount of playing time at home, had a career-high nine kills

"The composure they showed was fantastic," Waite said. "The passing gave Jackie (Simpson) a chance to move the offense around and give them an opportunity to swing at a good ball all the time. We couldn't have asked for more."

With the pair of victories over the weekend, the Badgers showed the conference that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

"I think it was [a statement]," Waite said. "It was a big confidence boost for our team. Going into it, they were all kind of wondering how it was going to go. I thought they played with a lot of confidence and maturity.

"I think it is going around the rest of the league seeing how we beat Purdue in three and now Indiana today (in three), that we are here, and we're back, and we are playing good ball."