MADISON – Wisconsin volleyball did not win as convincingly as one would expect from a Big Ten team against a Horizon League foe, but the Badgers humbly left the UW Field House with a win in their nonconference finale.
The sixth-ranked Badgers defeated UW-Milwaukee in four sets, 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 25-15, on Sept. 18 at the UW Field House to boost their record to 6-4 ahead of Big Ten play.
It was the Panthers’ first time winning a set against the Badgers since Sept. 14, 2013 – Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield’s first season in Madison. The Panthers also forced eight ties and three lead changes in the first set.
“Talent won the match,” Sheffield said. “But I felt like we lost the effort, and that doesn’t happen too many times here.”
Here are three takeaways from the Badgers’ less-than-picturesque win:
Third set leaves much to be desired for Badgers
Wisconsin’s third set was a puzzlingly bad result. (While the Panthers were coming off five straight wins heading into the Field House, this also was the same team that finished the 2025 season at No. 243 in RPI.)
UWM hit a match-high .345 in the set – considerably above the .238 that the Badgers previously allowed throughout matches against mostly power-conference competition.
“It was too high of a number,” Sheffield said. “I think our team defensive effort probably contributed to that number.”
The Badgers also did not help themselves in other aspects during the third set. They committed a match-high six service errors and allowed a critical 4-0 run that turned a 20-19 lead into a 23-20 deficit.
The 2013 match when the Panthers last took a set against the Badgers also was the last time that the Panthers even reached 20-plus points in the all-time series. The last time that Wisconsin lost by three or more points in a set to its easterly neighbor was 2010.
Wisconsin gets several players involved
The Badgers’ first eight matches were exclusively against power-conference teams, and the ninth match featured Big East mainstay Marquette. That left the Sept. 18 match as the ideal opportunity to get several bench players into the match.
While Kymora Scott had received playing time at middle blocker at other points in the season, she had an especially extended opportunity against the Panthers. She capitalized with 13 kills while hitting .579.
Fellow outside hitter Natalie Wardlow also started in the second, third and fourth sets and finished with eight kills and a .636 hitting percentage. Wardlow spoke highly of the work that UW setter Charlie Fuerbringer did to put her and Scott in good positions.
“She knows how to get the ball to us, no matter where she is on the court,” Wardlow said. “Like with Kymora, she was able to string that back, and I think that just shows the amazing setter that she is.”
Sixteen of UW’s 18 players appeared in the match, and 12 of those 16 players recorded at least one kill. Alyssa Konrad and Morgan Van Wie were among the reserves who saw the court, and Van Wie’s serving run at the end of the fourth set clinched the match.
The variety of players allowed starter Jaela Auguste to have a lighter workload in her third match (and second start) since returning from an injury. Fellow starters Decelise Champion, Lynney Tarnow and Audrey Flanagan also appeared solely in the first set.
“Our decision wasn’t to sub these guys in because I wanted to go easy on wear and tear,” Sheffield said. “I was hoping their effort was going to be better. And I would say some that we brought in had greater effort, and some others probably did not.”
Wisconsin caught ‘sleepwalking’ in last two nonconference matches
Wisconsin’s 14 service errors against the Panthers were the second-most in a match this season, trailing only the 15 service errors in the five-set win over then-No. 17 Florida. There was no one culprit either, as six UW players each finished with two or more service errors.
“Not consistent enough obviously,” Sheffield said. “Too many errors out of timeouts. Thought that was the case for the last two matches, and we got to get that fixed.”
It is part of Sheffield’s overall disappointment in the sixth-ranked Badgers’ effort not only in the four-set win over unranked UW-Milwaukee, but also in the four-set win over unranked Marquette the day before.
“That goes beyond winning and losing a set,” Sheffield said. “I thought we slept-walked, and we got ourselves out of it yesterday. … When you’re kind of sleepwalking to start a match, that means I have not prepared our team well enough. Our leaders have not asked enough.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball ‘lost the effort’ in win vs UW-Milwaukee | Takeaways
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