MILWAUKEE — It was a tale of two different offensive efficiencies Friday inside Fiserv Forum.
The University of Wisconsin volleyball team and Kentucky rekindled a Final Four match from last December, and both were nearly equal in kills on the evening. The Wildcats totaled 43, led by All-American outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye with 11, while the Badgers finished with 42. Kentucky, however, hit a blistering .448 in the first set on way to a .385 hitting percentage during its three-set sweep.
Wisconsin only mustered a .191 hitting percentage, committing 21 attack errors while Lizzie Carr, Kennedy Washington and the Wildcats finished with 10 total team blocks.
“You look at the the box score right away, and I think the thing that jumps out at you is Kentucky only (had) eight hitting errors,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I mean that is really clean, first match of the season. We had almost triple as many attack errors (21) as what they did. So those are things that you learn. You learn when you get that size of block in front of you, and that type of defense, and you can get stressed a little bit. And I felt like that was kind of what they did.
“They kind of wore us down with their defense of how well they coordinate up at the net and the backcourt, and that’s why you got to love playing these kinds of matches. Because you don’t get a feel for that by playing a team with a bunch of mighty mites up there, and so we’ve got to take better swings. We got to, and we will. We’ll learn from that match and move on. Got to flush this pretty quick because there’s pretty quick turnaround.”
Here are a few other takeaways from the match. Now’s the perfect time to take advantage of Badger Observer’s new deal where fans can get ALL the coverage from Big Ten football media days, fall camp, recruiting and much more for $2 a month or $20/year!
