The No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers got a big victory at the Field House on Wednesday, sweeping the No. 11 Purdue Boilermakers 3-0 to win their sixth straight match.
Wisconsin has been rolling over the past few
weeks since its loss to the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers, sweeping five of its last six opponents and now winning its third ranked matchup in that stretch.
With the win, they improved to 21-4 and 14-3 in conference play, while Purdue fell to 22-5 and 13-4 in conference play, recording their second-straight loss after a nine-game win streak.
The Badgers fell behind early in the first set, as Purdue took an early 5-1 lead thanks to consecutive kills from Kenna Wollard (2x), Grace Heaney, and Akasha Anderson, as well as an attack error from Grace Egan.
From there, Wisconsin slowly started to chip away at the lead, going on a 5-1 run of their own to take a 9-8 lead. Both sides were tooth and nail throughout the set after that, as there were four ties from that point until Wisconsin took a 15-14 lead on a service error.
Things wouldn’t change until the final points. Wisconsin seemed to be pulling away with back-to-back points to take a 23-21 lead behind kills from Una Vajagic and Mimi Colyer, but Purdue responded with consecutive points of their own. Finally, with the two sides tied at 24 apiece, Carter Booth had two major moments: a kill to go up one and a big block to give Wisconsin the set 26-24.
Booth was the hero in the first set, recording six kills and a block while hitting .857.
It was a much different story in the second set. Wisconsin dominated from the start, getting out to an 8-3 lead, thanks to three kills and a service ace from Una Vajagic. The Badgers never trailed in the set as they cruised to a 25-15 win, going up 2-0.
After hitting nearly .400 in the first set, Purdue struggled in the second set, hitting a measly .104. They had six attack errors, two service errors, and three block errors as Wisconsin had a better set.
The third set was much more similar to the first set, as neither side led by more than one until Wisconsin took a 9-7 lead. Purdue responded with a 6-2 run of their own to take a 13-11 lead. After both teams split the next two points, the Boilermakers had a 14-12 lead with some hope of taking things to a fourth set.
And the Badgers made sure to shut those hopes down immediately. Wisconsin went on an incredible 9-0 run to take a 21-12 lead and eventually take the third set 25-17. Alicia Andrew was huge during the run, recording three kills and a block, and the Badgers got their fifth sweep in six games.
With the win, Wisconsin improved to 21-4 and 14-3 in conference play, while getting another big win on its resume. Next up for the Badgers is a home matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m.
