The Wisconsin volleyball team continued its recent streak of dominance over the state of Illinois.
After defeating nationally-ranked Illinois earlier this week, the Badgers were back in action today and extended their 11-game Big Ten home winning streak by sweeping Northwestern 3-0 behind strong performances from sophomore Kelli Bates and redshirt junior Romana Kriskova.
No. 19 Wisconsin (10-4, 2-2 Big Ten) got off to a fast start in the first set behind Kriskova’s three kills and an improving bevy of weapons at junior setter Lauren Carlini’s disposal.
After the match, Kriskova credited her improved play over the last few matches to the strong Badgers attack and her growing confidence on the court.
“Definitely credit goes to our passing,” Kriskova said. “Since the passing is great, our setter can run offense and can set wherever she wants to. And also, I’m getting more and more confidence in myself. I think that helps.”
The second set was more of the same as Wisconsin toyed with the Wildcats (10-5, 2-2) en route to a 25-16 victory. The Badgers made sure to get Bates involved as she tallied five of her game-high 12 kills in the second game hitting at an outstanding 40 percent rate.
In the final set, Wisconsin continued its dominance and pulled away early to complete their first sweep of Big Ten play.
This time, it was the combination of Bates and Kriskova that pushed the Badgers over the edge as they combined for two-thirds of the kills in the final game.
Bates discussed the plethora of attackers the Badgers have on the front line.
“[Carlini] can be really deceptive, and with Romana getting all of these kills and completely earning her spot, it makes it a lot easier on me to get the kills when I need to,” Bates said. “I think we’re really hard to defend just because we have such great ball control, such a great setter and we have great attackers.”
Bates also noted that playing at home gives the Badgers the extra swagger needed to finish off their opponents.
“The home crowd is really energetic in the Field House, so it’s really easy to feed off of that momentum,” Bates said. “We’re trying to establish ourselves as a top-tier program, so with the Field House’s help and all of the ridiculous crowds that we get, it makes it really easy to have confidence in your team and feed off of what the crowd is giving us.”
Wisconsin improved to 50-29 all time against Northwestern and now turns its attention to an East Coast road trip against Rutgers and Maryland.
Wisconsin will next play at home on Oct. 14 against Minnesota in the annual Border Battle.
