Only five rallies into the first set, the Wisconsin volleyball team had set the tone for the afternoon.
In one determined effort, a massive dual-assisted block by Haleigh Nelson and Romana Kriskova sent Northwestern into a downward spiral for the remainder of the match. A match the Badgers swept three sets to none with relative ease.
That play rallied the Badgers around the common goal of stopping Northwestern’s attack at the net and sparked a team total of 12 blocks.
As Kriskova, co-leader in blocks in the match alongside Nelson (six), pointed out, Wisconsin’s efforts had more than just tangible consequences.
The Wildcats ended the competition with 22 attacking errors. With such a high number of errors, Kriskova believes the Badgers’ blocking ability led to a reluctant Northwestern attack and limited their offensive efficiency.
“We watched a lot of video and we saw what [Northwestern] likes to hit,” Kriskova said. “It made it easier to read them.”
With the Badgers seemingly putting up a wall at the net, Northwestern’s attack looked disoriented. Their disjointed play, aside from the 22 attacking errors, contributed to single-set attacking percentages that never topped .156 percent and a lackluster sideout percentage of 52 percent for the match.
“Our blocking was an impact tonight,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “We got our hands on a lot of balls and we finished a lot of those blocks.”
With a heavy blocking presence in front, Northwestern had limited space to place kills, and shots that did make it over the net found themselves falling right into Wisconsin’s defensive scheme.
“Our defense was in the right spot,” sophomore Kelli Bates said. “A lot of that I credit to our blockers up in the front row. They line themselves up well and it makes it really easy on the backcourt to be able to read where [shots] were going to go.”
Five Badgers ended the match with six or more digs, a job that usually falls on senior Taylor Morey, who averages 4.5 digs per set in 2015. But with an all-around performance by Wisconsin on defense, Morey only had to dig 11 balls.
The coaching staff was happy with how well their front line controlled the game, forcing Northwestern to hit manageable shots, which made those digs easier for the Badgers’ back row.
“Last match was our best passing match of the year,” Sheffield said. “Today we topped that by a bit more.”
Sunday’s match ended one block shy of Wisconsin’s season high of 13 blocks against Creighton back in September.
During the Badgers’ three-game losing streak that ended earlier this week after a win over Illinois, they averaged only seven blocks per game and ended the match against Penn State with a season low of five blocks.
In contrast, the Badgers average 10.25 blocks per game in wins this season.
