“I can’t stop shaking,” she said after upsetting the No. 8 team in the country.
“It’s OK,” volleyball head coach Pete Waite quickly responded. “It’s good to be shaking after a win.”
Wack’s game-high 18 kills, along with 14 from Brittney Dolgner and 11 from Elle Ohlander were a huge factor in the Badgers’ four set win over the Wolverines on Saturday, the first time the Badgers have beaten ranked teams in consecutive matches since 2006.
After dropping three of its first four Big Ten matches, the UW volleyball team looked like it was in a bad position before hosting No. 18 Michigan State and No. 8 Michigan this past weekend. However, the Badgers swept the Spartans Friday, and after dropping the first set to Michigan on Saturday UW came back to win the next three sets en route to the huge upset.
“The crowds were great, the players were poised through the whole thing, they never got rattled even after losing the first set,” Waite said. “They came back and got the next three, so I’m really pleased with what we’re seeing as far as the progress of the team from day to day and week to week, and that’s what our goal has been.”
In the first set, the Badgers had a chance to put the Wolverines away when Wack gave them game point at 24-23, but Michigan answered back to force extra points. The Badgers then couldn’t hold back Michigan, which finally was able to capitalize on a strong first set from outside hitter Alex Hunt, who had a team-high 15 kills in the match.
But Wisconsin answered back in the second set when it had a 24-21 lead for a set point. Once again however, the Wolverines fought back to push the score to 24-23 before Waite called a timeout. Immediately after the timeout, Wack slammed a pass from setter Janelle Gabrielsen onto the court, sending the 4,601 in attendance into a frenzy.
According to Wack, while she impressed offensively on Saturday, her focus on defense led to her ability to get kills and help the Badgers upset the Wolverines.
“I just came in with a more defensive mindset, just getting after all the balls — I was kind of slacking for a little while. And that just kind of leads into offensively, just everything flows better within the team and I think we had a pretty well-balanced offense and that helped a ton.”
Although Wack might not praise herself, Waite was not shy in commending his player for her strong effort against Michigan. Before the match, Wack was averaging only 1.89 kills per set, good for fourth on the team.
“Al was phenomenal tonight,” Waite added. “And this is something she’s been working towards and looking for and we’ve known she can do this, and she just…never got rattled and always battled the whole time and just came up with big swings for us at critical times.”
While Wack may have stolen the thunder in the second set, the former All-American Dolgner played up to her standards in the third set. She recorded seven kills on only 10 attempts with only one error. The Badgers took that set with relative ease, winning it 25-18.
“I think it just came out of great passing and ball-handling and getting [Janelle Gabrielsen] the ball and she’s really good when she doesn’t have to move around a lot in system sets, which were on the money…A lot of people had good opportunities to put the ball away.”
The fourth set was a back-and-forth battle that featured 12 tie scores and six lead changes throughout. However, Wack once again led the Badgers, notching the final two kills that gave UW the set 25-21 and finished off the Wolverines for a four-set victory.
For Waite and the Badgers, the victory does more than just push the volleyball team to a 3-3 Big Ten record. After beating Ohio State last week, Wisconsin has won three of its last four games and has established itself as a darkhorse in the Big Ten. According to Waite, the weekend sweep will not only give the team confidence, but it will send a message to the other schools in the Big Ten.
“It’s great, and this lets them know that what we’ve been doing and what we’ve been teaching is working,” Waite said. “They’ll believe even more to try those things and trust each other and give more effort to go after more teams. It’s just one of those weekends that will shoot across the Big Ten and shoot across the country.”
