The University of Wisconsin Women’s Volleyball team made a leap into the top five after their fourth consecutive win making for a terrifying matchup Oct. 31.
The No. 5 Badgers (16-4 Overall, 9-3 Big Ten) will welcome the No. 3 Gophers (18-2, 12-0 Big Ten) to Madison for a Halloween treat at the University of Wisconsin field house.
The third-ranked Gophers are riding a 13-game win streak right now dating back to Sept. 13 when they took down Green Bay in consecutive sets. Throughout this span, the Gophers have eliminated six top-25 opponents while only dropping two sets, both of which came at the hands of No. 8 Nebraska.
Minnesota’s two losses came very early in the season during a west coast road trip where they fell to both No. 18 Oregon and No. 4 Stanford.
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Wisconsin is currently riding a win streak of their own after collecting a pair of wins against Michigan and Michigan State last weekend. The Badgers now have matched the Gophers with six top-25 wins on the year.
Dana Rettke is red-hot right now, averaging 15.25 kills per match in the last four matches while also setting her career high in blocks with 10 against Nebraska.
The last time these two teams squared off was late Sept. in Minneapolis when the Gophers took care of the Badgers in three sets. The Gophers hit a dominant .386 during that match with big contributions from Stephanie Samedy and Alexis Hart who both recorded 14 kills.
In a game of this magnitude, with this much star power, the matchup to watch will be between the two stealthy setters.
This head-to-head features the 5-11 senior Samantha Seliger-Swenson out of Minnetonka for the Gophers who is currently averaging 11.74 A/S. On the Badgers side of the ball, Sydney Hilley is averaging 11.49 A/S while she is closing in on a 1,000-assist season.
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The key for the Badgers in this match will be to limit mistakes, they tallied 13 total errors compared to the Gophers seven total errors in their previous match against Minnesota.
These errors kill runs and kill momentum for the Badgers, which has already taken them out of big games this year. It will be very important for the Badgers to stay fundamentally sound and continue to feed Dana Rettke the ball.
The action begins at 8 p.m. on Halloween night on the Big Ten Network, or listen live with 100.9 FM, The Badgers Sports Network.
