The University of Wisconsin volleyball team closed their 2024 season with a loss against No. 2 Nebraska. The squad had a great season, ending with a 17-3 in conference play and 26-7 overall. Going 15-1 at home, the home turf advantage held strong.
This season the team prevailed through numerous trials and tribulations with injuries bringing a lot of freshmen to the court, including redshirt freshman libero Saige Damrow, freshman defensive specialists Maile Chan and Lola Schumacher and setter Charlie Fuerbringer.
The team also had six players playing their last season with the Badgers, graduate student setter Carly Anderson, fifth-year senior CC Crawford as a middle blocker, right side fifth-year Devyn Robinson, fifth-year outside hitter Sarah Franklin, right side senior Anna Smerk and senior libero/outside hitter Julia Orzol.
Franklin holds the 2023, and 2024 player of the year award for the Big Ten, which shows in her .289 hitting percentage for her last year here at Wisconsin. She continued to outperform herself throughout her years at Wisconsin, starting her career with 317 kills in 2022, now jumping to 535 kills in her 2024 season, ranking her second in the Big Ten in total kills.
Franklin has started in 98 of the 99 games played during her career with the Badgers. Her performance broke numerous records within the program including a season-high 33 kills against Marquette.
In 2023 Franklin was nominated for an ESPY under the category, Best Female Collegiate Athlete, as well as winning 2023 AVCA National Player of the Year.
The outside hitter represented the USA playing in the 2022 Collegiate National team as well as the 2024 NORCECA Women’s Final Six Pan American Cup, bringing home a silver medal.
Franklin now continues her volleyball career in Madison playing for LOVB Madison. Starting her season strong with a season-high of 19 kills in her match against LOVB Salt Lake. Hitting her highest point per match against LOVB Omaha with 21 points.
LOVB is also home to three other Badger alum, Lauren Carlini, Tami Thomas-Alaina, and assistant coach AnneMarie Hickey.
Robinson had a strong 2024 season as a right-side hitter as well as a middle blocker. Starting with the Badgers in the 2020-2021 spring season, Robinson totaled 152 kills with a 0.426 hitting average.
Alongside a strong first season with Wisconsin, she was awarded a AVCA Third-Team All-American, as well as participating in both the 2020 First-Team All-Big Ten, and a member of the 2020 NCAA Championship All-Tournament team.
In 2022, Robinson was named a VolleyballMag.com Second-Team All-American as well as honored AVCA All-Northeast Region. Wrapping up her fourth and final season with the Badgers, Robinson was honored with her fourth consecutive Academic All-Big Ten title.
In November, Robinson was chosen as the fifth overall pick within the first round, signing to San Diego Mojo Volleyball in the 2024 PVF Draft.
Crawford continues her volleyball career within the Indy Ignite League alongside Sydney Hilley and assistant coach Izzy Ashburn.
Crawford completed 232 Badger Blocks throughout her time at Wisconsin, averaging to 1.24 blocks per set. For her two seasons with Wisconsin, Crawford totaled 171 kills, and 313 points.
For Ignite, she has obtained 69 kills in her 49 sets, averaging to 1.41 kills per set. Crawford has scored a total of 104 kills for the team thus far.
Hilley graduated in 2021 after six seasons as a Wisconsin setter. She totaled 6220 assists throughout her collegiate career, with 576.5 points scored for the Badgers. In 2017, Hilley played on the Big Ten All-Freshman team, as well as being awarded Big Ten Setter of the Year for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Ashburn finished her time at Wisconsin after graduating in 2023. She played five seasons with the Badgers as a setter totalling 1553 assists, and 203 Wisconsin points.
Smrek continues her career internationally with Vero Volley Milano, following the footsteps of former Wisconsin hitter, Dana Rettke. The two played alongside each other in the 2020 and 2021 season.
Rettke was the tallest Badger player, standing at 6-8, until Smrek came to Wisconsin at 6-9.
Rettke holds the 2017 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year and the 2019-20 Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year.
Smrek totaled 1152 points throughout her four seasons with the Badgers, with 919 kills. As a middle blocker, Smrek totaled 443 Badger Blocks, averaging to 1.11 per set.
Wisconsin looks to start their spring season with a fresh new set of front line defense. The squad will travel to Hawaii on March 25 for two matches before coming back to The Field House for a battle against Marquette and UW-Green Bay.
