When the match was within its grasp, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team let it slip through its fingers.
The No. 7 Badgers suffered through an error-filled match as they fell to No. 16 Minnesota in five sets 25-19, 15-25, 27-25, 15-26, 16-18 in the Big Ten Conference opener at Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis.
Sarah Franklin had 21 kills to lead the Badgers (6-4, 0-1 Big Ten), but it was not enough to overcome the Gophers (8-3, 1-0), who had four players with double-figure kills, led by Lydia Grote with 17.
But it was the points the Badgers couldn’t convert that will haunt coach Kelly Sheffield and his team. There were 24 hitting errors and 13 service errors, but there also were some mental errors along the way.
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“When you’ve got an opportunity to come in and steal something and you’re making errors, just silly stuff that we’re talking about during timeouts,” Sheffield said. “There will be a ton of stuff off that film that we’ve got to get better at.
“But there was an opportunity to come in here and steal that. Had we been two points better that would’ve been a really fun locker room. Once it got tied up toward the end, they played better in the last three minutes of the match and that was the difference.”
The Gophers dominated the first two sets that they won, then jumped out to the lead in the fifth. They were up 14-11 before the Badgers rallied with a 3-0 run to force extra points on two kills by Franklin and a service ace by Lola Schumacher. But the Badgers nevercould gain the advantage and the Gophers finally locked up the victory on a service error by Devyn Robinson and a kill by Julia Hanson.
Here are three things that stood out.
Badgers unable to take advantage of Gophers passing woes
“We had them out of system almost the entire match,” Sheffield said. “I think they passed 1.4, 1.5. When you have your opponent passing 1.4 or 1.5, you’ve got to win that match.”
So even when theywere trailing in the fifth set, Sheffield still was optimistic the Badgers could come back. But they failed to execute when they needed to.
“The fifth set you know a ball is going to Grote and we’ve got a hole in the block from not reading an obvious situation,” Sheffield said. “Two balls that are service errors right toward the end when they’re shanking everything. Then two balls that we wanted to serve in the 5 zone and the bro is in the 1 zone and they serve it to the 1 zone. Those were the only balls that they passed toward the end of the match, balls that we missed the area of the court by 15, 20 feet. We just didn’t execute. The opportunity was there.”
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Wisconsin shuffles lineup
Junior Gulce Guctekin returned to the starting lineup at libero after losing that spot to Shumacher for the past several matches. Schumacher took on the defensive specialist duties, subbing in for right side Anna Smrek in the back row.
Sheffield also switched up his front row with Caroline Crawford and Carter Booth starting the match at middle blocker, while Robinson was on the sidelines. But Robinson saw action along the way, first filling in for Smrek on the right side and then for each of the other middles.
But none of the combinations up front worked.
“We out-passed them but we never really got our middles going and our right sides were not able to get kills out of system,” Sheffield said.
Orzol contributes across the board
Senior outside hitter Julia Orzol showed her all-around game with her 13 kills along with 16 digs, three assists, three blocks and a career-high matching four service aces.
She passed the 100 mark for career aces.
Wisconsin | 25 | 15 | 27 | 15 | 16 |
Minnesota | 19 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 18 |
WISCONSIN (kills-digs-blocks) — Franklin 21-14-1, Smrek 13-1-6, Orzol 13-16-3, Fuerbringer 4-8-0, Booth 3-3-5, Robinson 2-2-5, Crawford 0-2-4, Schumacher 0-9-0, Guctekin 0-17-0. Totals 56-72-13.
MINNESOTA (kills-digs-blocks) — Grote 17-15-4, Hanson 15-6-3, Acevedo 12-4-1, Minatee 11-2-3, Shaffmaster 6-10-1, Awoleye 5-0-5, Wucherer 0-3-0, Crowl 0-2-0, Thibault 0-8-0, Palabiyik 0-24-0. Totals 66-74-9.
Hitting percentage — W .188, M .250. Aces — W 11 (Orzol 4), M 7 (Grote 3). Assists — W 54 (Fuerbringer 43) M 58 (Shaffmaster 47). Att. – 5,262.
Photos: Wisconsin volleyball survives 2nd set test to sweep Texas A&M
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Dennis Punzel | Wisconsin State Journal
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