Wisconsin Badgers volleyball falls to Penn State without star setter Charlie Fuerbringer

Penn State’s Rec Hall continues to be one of the harder places for Wisconsin volleyball to win.

The seventh-ranked Badgers experienced that again on Oct. 10 as they suffered a three-set loss to No. 19 Penn State, 25-20, 25-21, 25-16, which snapped their 10-match winning streak. Penn State, meanwhile, gained some momentum and a quality win for its postseason résumé after losing two of its previous three matches.

Penn State is now 28-3 all-time against Wisconsin in matches at its historic Rec Hall. Here are three takeaways from the loss:

In battle between two transfer stars, Kennedy Martin outshines Mimi Colyer

Both schools had high-profile transfer portal additions at outside hitter.

Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer was a second-team All-American last year at Oregon. Penn State’s Kennedy Martin was a first-team All-American at Florida after leading the country in points per set.

As they faced off at Rec Hall, Martin clearly had the upper hand.

Martin finished the night with 23 kills while hitting .474. That included 10 kills during the first set — one more than Wisconsin’s entire team had at that point. She showed the ability to attack from a variety of places on the floor and did so with both power and finesse.

Colyer, on the other hand, struggled mightily against the Nittany Lions. She had eight kills while hitting .057, and both were season-lows. Wisconsin is now 0-2 when Colyer hits below .150. (The Oregon transfer also struggled at Rec Hall with the Ducks last year. She had two kills and five attack errors in that match.)

Wisconsin out of sorts offensively without star setter Charlie Fuerbringer

Wisconsin’s second loss of the season — and its first time even losing multiple sets since Aug. 31 — happened in the first full match without its All-American setter.

Charlie Fuerbringer exited the Oct. 5 match against Michigan with an apparent shoulder injury in the first set. The Badgersfared well without her for the rest of the match against the unranked Wolverines, but they ran into some more adversity against Penn State — the reigning national champion.

Fuerbringer’s absence coincided with the Badgers hitting .151 against Penn State, which was their lowest hitting percentage in a match since hitting .141 in the Aug. 31 loss to then-No. 5 Texas.

It was a stark contrast from UW’s NCAA-leading .333 hitting percentage heading into the Oct. 10 match. It also was significantly below Penn State’s opponents’ hitting percentage of .231 in its first 14 matches.

At one point in the first set at Rec Hall, Wisconsin had one kill versus four attack errors. Along with Colyer’s aforementioned struggles, fellow outside hitter Una Vajagic hit .048 in the match. Middle blocker Alicia Andrew hit minus-.286.

Freshman Addy Horner started in place of Fuerbringer, but assistant coach John Shondell noted that the issues connecting with UW's outside hitters are "not on Addy."

"That's on first contact, and that's on our hitters being smart, making good decisions and hitting shots they need to hit," Shondell said on UW's postgame radio show.

Fuerbringer was with the team on the sidelines. She was seen on the TV broadcast without wearing a sling, which she was wearing during the Michigan match.

Madison Quest was silver lining for Badgers

Wisconsin freshman Madison Quest was one of the few silver linings for the Badgers in their overall-uncompetitive outing.

The Pewaukee native — starting again in place of the injured Grace Egan at right-side hitter — had a team-high 10 kills while hitting .421.

The only other Badgers to hit above .100 were middle blocker Carter Booth at .444 and defensive specialist Aniya Warren with one kill on one attack — an overpass that found open real estate on the Penn State side of the court.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball falls to Penn State without Charlie Fuerbringer