The Badgers had their second big upset of the week.
The Wisconsin Badgers wore black for a reason on Sunday: they went to a Texas Funeral.
The No. 3 Badgers upset the No. 1 Texas Longhorns 3-1 on Sunday, sending them to the Final Four against the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats in an impressive win.
Wisconsin, facing the team that swept them earlier in the season, came ready to play. Falling behind 10-7 in the first set, the Badgers went on a four-point run before the two sides engaged in a back-and-forth battle, with neither side leading by more than two before Wisconsin had a monster end to the set.
Leading 18-17, the Badgers had an impressive 6-0 run thanks to a trio of Texas attack errors, a Mimi Colyer kill, a Kristen Simon service ace, and a Carter Booth kill. The Longhorns tried to mount a comeback, scoring five straight points, but Colyer got the set-winning kill, and Wisconsin started up 1-0.
The Badgers got off to a good start in the second half, starting off with a 10-6 lead. After the Longhorns went on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to one, the Badgers controlled the remainder of the set, starting with a 3-0 run of their own. From there, Wisconsin led by at least three for the rest of the set, with Carter Booth and Mimi Colyer having a flurry of kills, and they ultimately took the second set 25-21 to go up 2-0.
But, the work wasn’t done just there. The Longhorns were still a big threat, and they showed that in the third set, taking an early 8-6 lead after going on a 4-1 run. Wisconsin fought back with a 4-1 run of their own moments later, retaking the lead 12-11, with Colyer recording four straight kills.
However, a five-point Texas run right after proved to be the difference in the set, as the Longhorns took a 16-12 lead and never relinquished it, despite Wisconsin fighting to cut the deficit to one at 20-19. Texas closed out the set on a 5-1 run, taking the third set and we had a ballgame.
Things did not look good at the start of the fourth set, as the Longhorns started the set on a 4-0 run, picking up where they left off in the third set. That’s when the tables turned. Wisconsin completely flipped the script on a 13-4 run to take a five-point lead, with reserve Trinity Shadd-Ceres having two clutch back-to-back kills.
Moments later, that lead was extended to 18-11, thanks to a Colyer kill and two more attack errors from Texas. The Longhorns had a four-point run, but the deficit was too much to overcome, as the Badgers closed the set on a 6-3 run to win the fourth set 25-19 and take the match.
Colyer had another impressive game, following her 27-kill performance against Stanford with a 23-kill performance on Sunday. Una Vajagic came up huge in the end, getting 15 kills while hitting .458, while Booth had 11 kills of her own.
Elsewhere, Charlie Fuerbringer followed her 61-assist game on Friday with 57 assists on Sunday, while Alicia Andrew had a team-high five blocks. Wisconsin had 25 attack errors and 10 service errors, but they were still too much for Texas to handle.
Now, they’re heading back to the Final Four, with the Kentucky Wildcats up next on Thursday.
Category: General Sports
