For the fifth time this season, Wisconsin volleyball has swept their opponent in straight sets.

The 25-22, 25-11, 25-21 win over Kent State pushed the Badgers’ win streak to six straight games and improved their season record to 6-1, ending their time in the Badger Classic with two sweeps.

The Golden Flashes fought hard, fooling the Badgers with their serve placement to keep the game close for much of its duration, so much so that UW head coach Kelly Sheffield had to give his team’s opponent credit where he felt they deserved it.

“[Kent State] did a masterful job at serving,” Sheffield said. “They kept us off-balance. We really struggled for a good portion of the night. Overall, the game was a struggle…they put some really tough serves in play.”

And Sheffield is not wrong in saying so.

The Badgers hit just over 18 percent in the second set, riding two service streaks by juniors Haleigh Nelson and Lauren Carlini who each tallied 8 and 6 point streaks, respectively, late in the same set.

But Wisconsin’s impressive serving streaks included three aces by Nelson and eight blocks by the front line which kept the Badgers more on the defensive side, as they only attempted 22 kills in the set. 15 less kill attempts than their average for the two other sets.

“Something I’ve really been working on is being consistently aggressive with my serve,” Nelson said. “This weekend I really wanted to do that.”

The tough win was highlighted by some impressive kills delivered by sophomore Kelli Bates, 12 kills, and Nelson who had 11 of her own.

But as is the usual story, Carlini provided masterful assists, tallying 37 on the night. While attempting 70 assists in the match, she had her hands full in mixing up her schemes against a talented Kent State front court.

“There’s kind of a happy medium between sticking to the game plan and realizing what their tendencies are,” Carlini said. “What’s changing as the match is going on. Being able to recognize that and distribute the ball accordingly. It gets a little difficult sometimes, but I have teammates and coaches helping me out with it, so I don’t feel alone or by myself when I’m trying to figure things like that out.”

Playing at such a high level the past few games, the Badgers will look to continue their recent hot-streak next week when they take on Creighton, Kansas and Arkansas at the Creighton Classic.