The No. 2 University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team won their eighth straight game Wednesday night against Rutgers University in impressive fashion, 25-6, 25-11 and 25-11. The match was 11th sweep and quickest match of the season for the Badgers (13-0, 5-0 Big Ten), taking only 65 minutes to down a clearly mismatched Scarlet Knights (4-14, 0-5 Big Ten) team in dominant form.
Wisconsin held its newest top-tier ranking in style and looked virtually unstoppable doing it. The Badgers recorded only two service errors in the whole match and posted their third game of the year with a hitting percentage over .400 with .436. In the third straight conference game on the road Wednesday, the squad wasted no time climbing to an early lead and refused to give an inch for the rest of the match.
The usual suspects did most of the heavy lifting for the Badgers as All-American senior setter Lauren Carilini hit a career-high six aces and 31 assists. Fellow senior All-American and middle blocker Haleigh Nelson notched a match-high 11 kills and a .733 hitting percentage with no errors as well. The rest of the team for the Badgers followed suit as junior Lauryn Gillis, junior Kelli Bates and sophomore Tionna Williams all contributed to finish off the Scarlet Knights.
As if Wisconsin needed any help on the other side of the court, the defense had an equally impressive day, holding Rutgers to a season opponent-low .013 hitting percentage at the end of the game. The match was as balanced as the Badgers could have asked for and proved this 2016 squad is truly in midseason form.
A headline that might have been overshadowed by the brevity of the game was Gillis’s return, the player who spent almost a month nursing an ankle sprain that she suffered in Wisconsin’s only loss of the season at then-No. 11 North Carolina. The experienced outside hitter adds an incredible amount of depth to a team already taking major strides toward championship goals.
Volleyball: Wisconsin players battle through injuries to continue winning
With most of the major parts back in place, the potential is endless for a perfect 5-0 Badgers squad tied for first in the Big Ten with five top 20 wins and the No. 2 overall ranking. Despite the success, there is still no room to rest with a matchup against No. 1 University of Minnesota only five days away.
Wisconsin returns home for another tough in-conference battle against No. 24 University of Illinois Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Coverage of the game airs live on BTN.
