EVANSTON, Ill. — A dominant performance led the No. 1 Wisconsin volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-12, 25-13 sweep over Northwestern in the Big Ten season opener on Friday night.
After a competitive start to the first set, Wisconsin (10-0) took control. A kill from senior Devyn Robinson sparked a 6-0 serving run from Gulce Guctekin and the Badgers secured a 18-11 lead. The Wildcats continued to fight, and brought it back within six (22-16), but kills from Temi Thomas-Ailara and Carter Booth put it out of reach for Northwestern (6-5). UW took the first set, 25-18.
In the second set, Wisconsin dominated. The Wildcats got out to a 3-1 lead, but it was all Wisconsin from there. An 8-0 serving run from Julia Orzol, including two aces, along with a 7-0 serving run from Izzy Ashburn, propelled the Badgers to a commanding 25-12 victory in set two.
Completing the sweep, UW continued their balanced attack in the third set, taking the set and match, 25-13. The Badgers took the lead from the get-go and didn’t look back, hitting a match-high .476 in the final frame.
Robinson led the Badgers with a match-high 11 kills. Sarah Franklin and Carter Booth added nine and eight kills, respectively. Wisconsin hit .367 (41 kills – 8 errors – 90 attempts), while holding Northwestern to .079 (23 – 16 – 89). The Wildcats had four players each finish with a team-high four kills.
UW doubled up Northwestern on blocks, with 8.0 total blocks, while limiting Northwestern to just 4.0. Booth led the team with 6 blocks. Izzy Ashburn finished with 17 assists, while MJ Hammill added 13 helpers. Guctekin added five assists as well.
Ashburn led the team with 13 digs, recording her sixth double-double this season. Libero Julia Orzoł rounded out double figure digs with 12. UW tallied eight service aces in the three-set match, with seven players recording an ace, and Orzoł with two.
Straight from the court
Head coach Kelly Sheffield
On defense: “Defensively, I thought we were fantastic. We haven’t been able to put back-to-back practices together in a few weeks. I think an element of that has shown in our match play. This week we were able to put two really good defensive practices out there and that showed… we were persuing balls, we were balanced. We got great block touches.”On Julia Orzol serving: “She’s serving with a lot more pace and hitting it nice and clean and flat… her errors are going up but her opponent passing percentage is dropping. We’re scoring a lot of points off her serves. The kid has a lot of confidence that her serve is better than people receive.”
Devyn Robinson
On what was working: “I feel like our first contact was really good and we just stayed steady the whole time and Izzy had the trust in the world toward me.”
On the block: “I feel like our block has been better than it has been. We’ve been working a lot on it.”
Notes to know
- Badgers recorded eight services aces against the Wildcats, it’s the second highest this season in three sets. Wisconsin had 11 against Arizona on Sept. 7.
- UW hit over .300 as a team for the seventh time this season. Wisconsin hit .376 (41-8-90) which is the team’s highest hitting percentage in 2023 so far.
- Senior Devyn Robinson had a .556 hitting percentage (11-1-18), a new season high.
- Grad student Izzy Ashburn recorded her sixth double-double, with 17 assists and 13 digs.
- With 17 assists on the night, Ashburn has 1000 career assists.
- Checking in the second set, Joslyn Boyer hit the 100 career matches milestone.
- Sophomore Carter Booth hit .667 (8-0-12), setting a new season high.
- Wisconsin held Northwestern to a .079 (23-16-89) hitting percentage, the second lowest so far this season. The Badgers held Miami to a .076 (31-23-105) back on Sept. 8.
Up next
Wisconsin will return home to host Indiana for the Big Ten home opener and 33rd-annual Steve Lowe match on Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. and will be streamed on B1G+ ($)