NCAA Women
Lee Feinswog
November 24, 2023
MADISON, Wisconsin — A few takeaways from Wisconsin’s 25-22, 28-26, 25-16 victory Friday over Nebraska.
Wisconsin (25-3, 16-3 Big Ten) is better with 6-foot-9 Anna Smrek.
Nebraska (27-1, 18-1) will not finish unbeaten.
And in this what-have-done-for-me-lately world of NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, both teams get no rest after a three-set, 1-hour, 48-minute slugfest: Wisconsin plays host to Iowa while Nebraska goes to Minnesota.
“This match for us wasn’t about Nebraska,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “It really wasn’t. When you’ve lost two out of your last three, it was about us playing well. It was really important to us for us to start playing well. No matter who we were playing.”
But it was a sweep of Nebraska, the rival of all rivals, and a team that happened to be the lone unbeaten.
“It was not about ending somebody’s undefeated season,” Sheffield said. “None of us went into this year saying if we play somebody’s that undefeated let’s go and bury them. Or it’s Nebraska, let’s go. We wanted to play well headed into the tournament.
“Are we the best team? When we’re playing well we’re a handful, I know that. I also know there are a lot of teams that can stress you in a lot of different ways. And that team over the course of the season has earned the right to say they’re the best team in the country. They’ve been playing really, really well. Today was our day and we’ve got another one in 24 hours.”
The loss before a rocking UW Field House crowd of 7,229 should not keep top-ranked Nebraska from being the top seed in the NCAA Tournament — the bracket selection announcement is Sunday — and the victory certainly ensured that No. 3 Wisconsin gets one of the coveted top seeds.
“It would be a crime if they’re not,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.
Anna Smrek had 18 kills — six in the third set with one error in 13 attacks for Wisconsin. She hit .378 after having four errors in 37 total attacks, and had three blocks. Smrek set the bar when, as a freshman, she led Wisconsin that epic five-set 2021 NCAA title match win over Nebraska in which she had 14 kills with two errors in 28 swings and seven blocks. That came two days after she had 20 kills with one error in 27 attacks in the five-set semifinal win over Louisville.
“It (felt like it) on our side, the way our team just stuck together and we looked to each other and everybody was on the same page about what we wanted to do this afternoon,” Smrek said. “We all wanted it and we were hungry and that’s how I would compare it to that national-championship game.”
Sarah Franklin had 16 kills — eight in the first set — with two errors in 33 swings, hit .424 and had 12 digs. Temi Thomas-Ailara had two matches in one. Before she got her first kill early in the second set, she had four errors in seven attacks and was hitting minus .571. She finished with eight kills without an error in her last 16 swings and hit .174 to go with a block and two digs.
“When she was physical she was really good,” Sheffield said.
Devyn Robinson had five kills in 10 errorless attacks and two digs and Carter Book had four kills with one error in nine attacks, an assist, a dig and two blocks, one solo. CC Crawford had a kill in three errorless tries, an assist, an ace, a dig and four blocks, one solo.
Setter MJ Hammill had 25 assists, two aces and nine digs, and counterpart Izzy Ashburn had 17 assists and a dig.
“It’s nice to have all the pieces,” Sheffield said. “We haven’t had a lot of matches where we’ve had everybody available.”
That was certainly obvious when the Badgers went to Penn State on November 11 without Smrek, who was in concussion protocol. Wisconsin lost in four. Six days later, at Purdue and again without the product of Welland, Ontario, Canada, the Badgers lost in five.
Smrek returned for Wisconsin’s sweep at Indiana last Sunday and had 10 kills with two errors in 12 swings and five blocks. That was just a warmup for Friday.
Would Wisconsin have won those matches at Penn State and Purdue with Smrek?
“It’s a journey,” Hammill said. “We don’t like to give excuses to why we’re losing matches or not playing to our full potential, because that’s just selling yourself short. That’s not championship behavior, that’s not what we want to be doing.”
“When you’re playing Nebraska there’s this balance of being physical and patient, because their defense, their ball control, their setting, their team is just really good,” Sheffield said. “If you get frustrated it allows and leads to errors. When you play really good defensive teams you can get frustrated and give away a bunch of points.”
That, apparently, is what happened to Nebraska in the third set when Wisconsin had 17 kills with one error in 27 attacks.
The first set felt like two boxers swinging hard but not connecting. Nebraska bolted to an early lead and Wisconsin never was ahead until 20-19. The Badgers went up 24-20 before finally closing it on a kill by Franklin.
Nebraska seemed in control of the second set, one that had a late-tournament feel, leading by three on a number of occasions, the last at 13-10. The Huskers were still ahead 17-15 before Wisconsin charged ahead 19-17. Then Nebraska went on a 5-0 run. The back and forth continued until Wisconsin broke a 26-26 tie on an attack error by Merritt Beason and kill by Booth.
Wisconsin just dominated the third, quite a turnaround from losing at Nebraska in five on October 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-13.
“I thought the first two games were great. We had our chances,” Cook said. “I thought it was really high-level volleyball, it was fun to watch. I would have paid the admission fee to watch that. Wisconsin made the plays.”
Harper Murray led the Huskers with 15 kills after a second set in which she was spectacular, getting nine kills with one error in 15 swings to go with an ace, a block and seven digs.
“Harper hasn’t been playing that well lately and I thought she stepped up:],” Cook said.
Beason had 11 kills, a block and seven digs, and Ally Batenhorst had 11 kills, hit .409 after having two errors in 22 attacks, and added two digs. Setter Bergen Reilly had a kill, 32 assists and 10 digs.
“The Big Ten is a dogfight all the time. Every single match. That’s a great team,” Hamill said. “I’m sure there will be a time when we will see them again (in the NCAA Tournament).
Wisconsin hit .357, Nebraska .243. Wisconsin had a 6-3 advantage in blocks and 45 digs to the Huskers’ 45. Both teams served tough as Wisconsin had five aces and five errors and Nebraska three and three.
“We made some progress, but I’m giving Wisconsin all the credit,” Cook said. “They made the plays when it mattered and got it done those first two games.”
It added up to the end of the undefeated season, and, to save you from looking it up, the last teams to go undefeated were Penn State, 38-0 in 2008 and 2009 as part of its 2007-2010 four-year NCAA-title run.
“Everybody else talks about it, so we never talk about it,” Cook said. “We made a lot of great effort to get to this point, we won the Big Ten, but this is a really good learning match for us. We have a better understanding. Instead of me telling them, they learned from the experience tonight what it’s going to take.”
A reset and a teaching moment?
“That’s how we’re looking at this week,” Cook said. “Because next week there’s no room for error.”
That wasn’t lost on Rodriguez, the Nebraska super junior libero who had eight digs and eight assists. She’s been through the Big Ten wars and has played here. For so many of her young teammates, this was a first to Wisconsin, the second-toughest place to play.
“Better to happen now than two weeks from now,” Rodriguez said. “We have to remind them there’s so much more to the season and one loss doesn’t determine our team’s success. We’ve done so many great things this season and we just have to go back to thinking about how we were able to get those big wins over teams and carry that from there.”
