The Wisconsin Badgers had the No. 15 Indiana Hoosiers on the ropes in the UW Field House, then spent the back half of the match trying to patch up a mess that never needed to happen.
Wisconsin opened with complete control, rolling to a 25-19 win in set one and a 25-14 win in set two. At that point, the match looked comfortably in hand.
Instead, the Hoosiers flipped it. Indiana took set three 25-22 and set four 25-20, turning what should have been a clean win into a five-set fight.
A lot of that swing came after Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield started moving pieces around. He was trying to get players into the match and give them chances to learn on the fly, but the rhythm changed fast once the lineup began to shift. The passing got sloppier, the blocking wasn’t as sharp, and Indiana found more room to work with.
Indiana also had a clear plan for Decelise Champion. Through the early going, the Hoosiers kept her in check, and she finished with just four kills, three errors and a .100 hitting percentage.
She wasn’t the only Badger having a rough stretch, either. Eva Travis finished with a negative hitting percentage of -.056, with five errors and four kills.
That left Sheffield reaching for answers. Grace Lopez and others got time, and fans also saw Madison Quest and Halle Thompson.
Lopez had some success from the back row, but the overall feel of the match changed. Once Champion was out of the flow, Indiana shifted its attention to Flanagan and started to bottle her up as well.
Champion’s impact still showed up even when the kills weren’t coming. Her block changed the shape of the match, and when Sheffield brought her back late, Wisconsin finally steadied itself enough to avoid the reverse sweep. In the end, Champion helped finish it off, with her block creating overhits and her final kill sealing the win.
Sheffield did not go deep into his bench against Purdue because the Badgers were “crushing” them, and this time the same kind of comfort nearly cost Wisconsin against a Big Ten opponent that kept pushing. Indiana was good enough to make the Badgers pay for the experiment, and Wisconsin was fortunate to escape with the win.
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Even with the mess, Wisconsin found a way to rally after its quarterback threw three interceptions, including a pick-six. That escape might buy some breathing room for the moment, but it also puts the focus right back on the same areas that could get costly again if the Badgers dont tighten them up soon. [Read more 🡒]