Wisconsin sweeps Valparaiso

[wiscvball]

Valpo went 5 with UCLA last night, tonight was a different story.

Wisconsin sweeps, 30-21, 30-21, 30-22

Shaw leads the badgers with 13 kills, hitting .333 with 7 blocks.

Jeffers has 12 kills, hitting .357, with 3 blocks.

Badgers hit .257 to Valpo's .138, and outblock them 10-7.

Wack leads the defense with 22 digs, and Simpson adds 48 assists, 11 digs, 4 kills.

Amy Palash leads Valpo with 11 kills, 13 digs, .195%

Tomorrow the Badgers take on UCLA at 5:00, live on CSTV for the tournament championship. UCLA beat Valpo 3-2, and Villanova 3-0, while Wisconsin swept both opponents.

[wiscvball]

Also... the Badgers register 7 aces with only 2 errors, and only allow Valpo one ace in the match.

[bucky415]

The Badgers weren't quite as sharp offensively tonight, but they played a really solid match overall. Valpo is not a bad team. They pass and serve pretty well and are pretty good defensively, but they really didn't threaten the Badgers too much in this one.

I think the strongest area for the Badgers tonight was the service line, which is a welcome change. They really served Valpo tough and rode that to several scoring runs. They also won most of the long rallies in a match that featured a lot of them. Valpo mostly tried to hit around the Badger block rather than challenge it, but Wisconsin's much improved back row defense did its job tonight. Wack seemed to pick up everything, and Carlini and Simpson also added 11 digs. The Badgers have just seemed hard to score on the last two nights. The Badger passing was also pretty good, which kept Valpo's block (which had been very good against UCLA and Villanova) off balance.

As for individual performances, Meierotto had a slew of kills in the first game and finished with 12 (mostly of the emphatic variety). She is hitting with that vicious snap and got a lot of one on one opportunities. Reineke got dug a lot (credit to Valpo on some nice plays) but had a thunderous kill on a middle slide. Shaw got most of her kills from the middle but also hit left, right, and back slide, showing her versaitility. Jeffers also can hit a lot of different attacks and continues to impress with her power and athleticism. Carlini was a bit inconsistent offensively again but is playing great defense. She and Meierotto did a good job of blocking against Valpo's slide attacks.

All in all, another solid outing for the Badgers. I realize they struggled against the only ranked team they have faced this season, but the team looks improved from last season, as everyone has stepped up their game in some regard. I am hoping they can play well and beat UCLA tomorrow. I think the Badgers are the better team at this point, and I hope they prove me right.

[valpo2006]

Thanks for the in-person reports, Bucky. It's tough for me, as a Valpo fan, to figure out how good we can be when we're playing teams like Drake and St. Louis, and it's always nice to hear an opinion from a fan of a high-major team.