Yahoo Autos 'It was two heavyweights slugging it out': Wisconsin volleyball survives Penn State, one win from Big Ten title
The Wisconsin volleyball team is almost home.
Thanks to a Friday night upset of Ohio State by Maryland and a dramatic, five-set win over Penn State on Saturday, the Badgers are one victory away from assuring themselves at least a share of their fourth straight Big Ten championship.
The 3-2 win over Penn State Saturday night in front of a crowd of 4,301 at Rec Hall in State College, Pennsylvania extended No. 3 Wisconsin’s winning streak to 16 matches. It also improved their record to 23-3 overall and 17-1 in the Big Ten.
The match is part of a four-match season-ending stretch for UW in which the team plays three teams ranked among the top 15 nationally in the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
The Badgers started the stretch Friday with a straight set win at Rutgers. At about the same time, Maryland upset Ohio State to knock the Buckeyes out of a first-place tie with UW. Ohio State's loss meant that the Badgers needed to win two of their final three matches to guarantee themselves at least a share of the conference title.
It took almost three hours to beat the 14th-ranked Nittany Lions, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-12.
“I’m just so proud. Penn State, that’s a great team,” senior Danielle Hart said during a post-game interview with the Big Ten Network. “They’ve gotten so much better through the season. The team just really grinded through that.”
Danielle Hart, Devyn Robinson lead UW attack
Junior right-side hitter Devyn Robinson finished with 17 kills, a .308 hitting percentage and nine blocks. Danielle Hart, a senior middle, recorded 13 kills, eight blocks and a 650 hitting percentage. She made no hitting errors in her 20 swings.
Izzy Ashburn and M.J. Hammill combined for 47 of the team’s 53 assists, helping get six players at least six kills. Four of those players hit at least .300.
Penn State had five players with at least 10 kills. Kashauna Williams had a match-high 18 kills but hit .087. Allie Holland added 15 kills and a .467 hitting percentage.
“It was an epic match,” UW coach Kelly Sheffield said. “We hung in there. This is a tough place to play. We haven’t come in here and won too many times. It’s an important win for us obviously.”
Wisconsin’s sweep of Penn State in Madison on Sept. 30 was the first victory of the Badgers winning streak. The Badgers win Saturday was just the third in 27 tries in program history in State College.
Instant classic sets stage for big final week for UW
UW hit .307 for the match and .333 in the final set; Penn State hit .258 for the match and .294 during the final set.
The teams went back and forth during the first four sets, so it only made sense that the final set had momentum swings for both teams.
The Badgers jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the final set only to fall behind, 11-9. From there Wisconsin ran off five straight points, a run fueled by kills from Hart, Robinson, Julia Orzol and Robinson again.
Hart and Orzol teamed up to get the block on Williams to end the match.
“I thought we stayed together. We kept battling," Sheffield said. "I thought it was two heavyweights slugging it out."
With the win, Wisconsin enters the final week of the conference season with a one-game lead over No. 6 Nebraska and No. 5 Ohio State teams it will face on the road Friday and Saturday, respectively.
The Badgers need a win in only one of those matches to become the second program in Big Ten history to win four straight championships. Penn State (1996-99) and (2003-2010) did it twice.
“The next match is important because we earned the right this past weekend,” Sheffield said. “We know we have some monsters in front of us. To get into their environments, it’s a challenge but welcome to the Big Ten, right.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball survives Penn State, one win from Big Ten title
