(UW ATHLETICS) LINCOLN, Neb. – The No. 2 seeded Badgers grinded out an offensive battle to take down No. 6 Texas A&M 25-21,18-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13 in a five-set thriller on Friday night to advance to the Regional Final for the seventh-straight year.
Sarah Franklin led the team with 21 kills, as Carter Booth finished with a career-high 14 kills. Anna Smrek added 10 to round out double-figure kills. The team hit .257 (67 kills – 22 errors – 175 attempts) on the night.
Texas A&M hit .223 (68 – 26 – 188) as Logan Lednicky held a match-high 23 kills.
The Aggies (21-8) got out to a hot start, tallying three kills in a row to take a 5-2 lead and force an early UW (26-6) timeout in the first set. Out of the timeout, the Badgers slowly chipped away at the lead to tie it back up at seven-all. Neither team led by more than two points, as they battled back and forth. Lola Schumacher extended the lead for the Badgers with a clutch ace to put UW up 23-20 and prompt an Aggie timeout. Wisconsin came out of the break and Franklin scored a kill out of the back row to bring up set point. Texas A&M held off one set point before Smrek called game with a kill down the line to win it 25-21.
Once again, the Aggies came out strong to start the set as the Badgers burned both of their timeouts early trailing 5-11. The Badgers put together a couple 3-1 runs to bring it back to just a 12-16 deficit, but Wisconsin couldn’t break through as they lost the second set 25-18.
Wisconsin struggled early again in the third set, trailing 3-6, but turned things around with a 4-0 run backed by kills from Franklin and Devyn Robinson along with a block from the two of them as well to take a 7-6 lead. The Badgers maintained the lead at 10-8, but the Aggies responded with a 4-1 run to regain the lead (12-11). The teams went point-for-point until a diving save for the point from Booth gave Wisconsin all the momentum (17-16), leading to a 9-2 run to win set three 25-19.
The start of set four was much more even, tied a 3-3, until the Aggies took a 7-4 lead. From there, the Badgers rallied back to bring it within one (11-10) courtesy of a block from Smrek and Booth. The Aggies came right back to take a 16-12 lead after a kill and a block. The Badgers capitalized off an error and back-to-back kills from CC Crawford, as Texas A&M called a timeout up 16-15. The Aggies held onto their lead, until the Badgers tied it up at 22-all. Texas A&M scored two straight to bring up set point, the Badgers held off one before the Aggies took set four 25-23 to force a fifth set.
The fifth started off tight, going point-for-point as the teams were all tied up at four-all. Franklin tallied two-straight kills to go up 6-4. Texas A&M responded with two-straight kills from Morgan Perkins. Wisconsin surged ahead with a 5-0 run fueled by three Badger kills and an ace by Franklin, to give Wisconsin an 11-6 lead as Texas A&M called a timeout. The Aggies trailed by as many as five (8-13) before they went on a 4-kill run to force a UW timeout, as the Badgers led 13-12. Out of the break, Booth put down a kill to set up match point. The Aggies held off one match point before Franklin found the floor to advance to the Regional Finals, 15-13.
Charlie Fuerbringer finished with 56 assists and added 12 digs for a double-double. Lola Schumacher had a match-high 24 digs.
Booth and Smrek both finished with nine blocks each. The Aggies outblocked Wisconsin 14.0-13.0.
The Badgers tallied four service aces, as Franklin led the team with two.
Straight from the court
Head coach Kelly Sheffield
On the match overall: “This tournament has been something else. I mean, it’s just balance, the competitiveness, seemingly every single match and then the number of five-setters that have already happened, barely halfway through. It’s just, it’s unbelievable. I think everybody that watched that match was in for a treat. I thought it was two teams that were laying it all out there just making big time plays big time.”
Middle blocker Carter Booth
On differences between the first matchup: I think on both sides, that’s a big improvement that we’ve made since the first time we played them, both sides were, we were running our middles and getting some good kills off of it. So it was just, it was fun to see and to just go kill for kill with them.
Outside hitter Sarah Franklin
On the fifth set: “I think when you get to any fifth set, especially in the tournament, especially in the Sweet 16 when you’re playing teams that are not going to back down at that point. Let’s just ball out, let’s play the ball that we know that we’ve been playing. And it’s just really like, look for it and you see red and you go for it. So I think it’s just the mentality of keeping to move forward no matter what the last four sets looked like.”
On the final point: “A lot of emotions. I mean we have the privilege to play continuing and I think at that point, it’s just so much gratitude for the people around me. And how much they have continued to fought to fight together to get to that point because, you know, I didn’t start off with the best match ever. So just a lot of gratitude and a lot of emotions that we can just continue to play another day.”
Notes to know
- For the 15th time in program history, and seventh-straight year, the Badgers advance to the Regional Finals, and improve to 15-7 in the Regional Semifinals after defeating Texas A&M 3-2.
- Fifth year Sarah Franklin once again recorded double-figure kills, 21, for the 23rd-straight match and 30th match this season. It’s also Franklins ninth 20+ match this season.
- Freshman Charlie Fuerbringer tallied her 11th double-double of the season with 56 assists and 12 digs.
- For the 21st time this season, Wisconsin recorded double-figure blocks (13.0).
- Junior middle blocker Carter Booth reached double-figure kills, setting a career-best, 14, for the fifth time season.
- Wisconsin was outblocked (13.0-14.0) for just the third time this season. The last time this happened was on September 7 at Baylor where Wisconsin recorded eight blocks to Baylor’s 10.
- Defensive specialist Gulce Guctekin reached double-figure digs (13) for the fifth time this season, and first since October 18 against Oregon.
- Freshman Lola Schumacher recorded her fourth 20+ dig match. Schumacher totaled 24 digs.
Up next
The Badgers will play the winner of Dayton vs Nebraska on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. CST. The match will broadcasted on ABC.
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