The volleyball teams from Marquette and Wisconsin put on a show in front of a record crowd Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.
The defending champions from the Big East and Big Ten went four sets, 2 hours and 36 minutes and played to 45 ties or lead changes.
When it was all said and done, Wisconsin, the nation’s top-ranked team, used comebacks in the first and third sets to help it score a 28-26, 20-25, 26-24, 25-18 win in front of a crowd of 17,037.
It was the second-largest crowd to see an NCAA regular-season match behind the 92,003 that witnessed Nebraska-Omaha at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30 and the largest to see an indoor regular-season match. The previous record belonged to UW and Florida, which played in front of 16,833 spectators at the Kohl Center last season.
More:A record crowd took in a volleyball match between Marquette and Wisconsin at Fiserv Forum, but the sport could get even bigger
BOX SCORE:Wisconsin 3, Marquette 1
Juniors Sarah Franklin and Anna Smrek shared the team-high with 15 kills for the Badgers, who overcame struggles at the service line and in serve receive to improve to 8-0.
Junior Julia Orzol finished with a career-high 23 digs and a team-high three aces. Senior MJ Hammill recorded her fourth double-double of the season (25 assists, 14 digs) and graduate student Izzy Ashburn (25 assists) broke the school’s career record for aces, pushing the mark to 167 with the two she recorded against the Golden Eagles.
“To play in front of this kind of crowd in this type of environment was great,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.
MU, meanwhile, dropped to 2-6. The match was the Golden Eagles' fifth straight loss, with all five coming to top 25 teams.
Senior Aubrey Hamilton posted 16 kills, eight digs and four blocks. Junior setter Yadhira Anchante (31 assists, 22 digs) and junior Jenna Reitsma had a match-high four aces plus 19 digs.
“We’re aware we’ve played a really difficult schedule to this point and we’ve seen some really great sets throughout the course of the first three weeks and just some high levels of play,” Marquette coach Ryan Theis said. “I think what we can take away is that we’re right there and can we close out some of these close sets. I believe we have the players in the locker room to do this and I think today was maybe a step in our believing it a little bit.”
Here are some takeaways from the match
There is no quit in the Badgers
If any team beats UW this season, the win will be well earned.
The Badgers are developing a stubbornness that will serve them well as the season wears on. We saw it in in the third set at Arkansas on Aug. 30 and we saw it again against the Golden Eagles.
The Badgers trailed, 22-19, in the first set but eventually rallied for a two-point win. In the third, the Golden Eagles led, 23-19, but with Orzol and Hammill serving tough the Badgers closed the set with a 7-1 run.
Those two stretches flipped the match.
“That just speaks to how we train,”: Hammill said of the comebacks. “ A lot of mindfulness, a lot just being prepared for the moment. Those are the moments where you’re either ready or you’re not and I think that shows what we work on in the gym.”
Yadhira Anchante, Ella Foti made life difficult for UW
The Badgers were on the ropes during each of the first three sets in part because of how well Anchante and Ella Foti handled themselves in the back row, the right-back in particular.
The two combined for 41 of the Golden Eagles' 78 digs.
“There were multiple plays that took more than one dig or two digs or three digs or scraping to keep the ball alive,” Theis said. “I thought it was our best defensive effort.”
Anna Smrek flashed her dominance in final set
Sheffield noted after the Tennessee match that he thought his team let up after taking a 2-0 lead. That didn’t happen after the Badgers won their second set Wednesday. Smrek had a major say in that.
Seven of her kills came during the final set, which was arguably the Badgers’ best of the evening. UW hit a match-high .452 in the set. Smrek hit .600 with two blocks during that portion of the match.
Four of those kills came as UW pulled away from what had been a 9-9 tie.
“I don’t think early on she was getting great hand contact on the ball and she felt she was a player who was rushed," Sheffield said. "She settled down and took really good swings when the ball was in her wheelhouse and when it wasn’t going in there and trying to put it where they’re not. She was big down the stretch.”
Golden Eagles sharp from service line
Led by Reitsma, Marquette tied a season high with eight aces. Beyond the aces, however, the Golden Eagles put so much heat on UW’s back row that it forced the Badgers to sub in defensive specialists for outside hitters Sarah Franklin and Temi Thomas-Ailara, who usually play six rotations.
That serving almost allowed MU to serve up an upset.
Saige Damrow shines in debut
Serve receive was a problem for the Badgers most of the night but especially in the second set. It was at that stage of the match that Sheffield inserted defensive specialists to jump start the team's offense. First came Gulce Guctekin then senior Joslyn Boyer and finally freshman Saige Damrow.
The product of Howards Grove High School ended up staying in the rotation the rest of the match. She finished with four digs and five assists and helped settle down that aspect of UW’s play.
“She’s been stringing together some really good practices the past week or two and carried it over into the match,” Sheffield said. “(She) made some really nice defensive plays, handled some really tough serves, put in some good out-of-system balls. She got a bit wonky with her serve, but for her first match it was really good.”
