The No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers kept surviving the kind of early-season gauntlet that can either harden a team or bury it.
On Friday in College Station, they showed they can also win the tight ones, rallying past No. 19 Texas A&M in five sets for another ranked victory.
Wisconsin’s 18-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11 win came after a shaky opening set and a match that never gave either side much breathing room. The Badgers had to chase early, settle in, and then finish stronger when it mattered most.
Texas A&M came out flying in the first set, building a 9-2 lead before Wisconsin finally settled into the match. The Badgers pulled all the way back to even things at 12 and briefly moved in front, but the Aggies closed with authority to take the set 25-18.
Set 2 looked more like Wisconsin’s pace, though not by much. The teams traded points and ties deep into the frame, and the score was deadlocked at 23 before the Badgers took advantage of a pair of Texas A&M errors to even the match.
The third set followed the same script for a while, with the sides tied at 20 as the finish line came into view. This time, Texas A&M found the late push, and Wisconsin could only trim the margin before dropping the set 25-23.
That left the Badgers needing a response, and they delivered one in the fourth. Wisconsin jumped out quickly, but the Aggies kept dragging the set back into a fight and tied it at 21. The Badgers answered with a 4-1 run to force a fifth set.
The deciding frame was tight again, with the teams level at 10. Then Wisconsin separated in a hurry, running off five straight points to put the match away.
The win added to a strong rebound from Wisconsin’s brutal opening stretch, which sent them through four top-10 opponents in their first four games. They opened with No.
3 Kentucky, No. 7 Louisville, No.
5 Stanford, and No. 4 Pitt, going 1-3 in that run.
They were swept by Pitt and Kentucky, beat Louisville in three, then built momentum last week at the UW Field House with a 3-2 win over No. 17 Florida and a sweep of Auburn.
That pushed Wisconsin to 3-3 and back up to No. 6 in the country before the trip to Texas A&M.
The schedule doesn’t let up. Next comes Texas on Sunday, with first serve set for 2:00 p.m.
In Other News...
Badgers Made An Early Statement Against The Champs For One Big Reason
Against the defending national champions, Wisconsin showed early that it could absorb a punch and keep swinging. The Badgers dropped the opening set to Texas A&M in a five-set volleyball match, but their offense found its rhythm as setter Charlie Fuerbringer kept the middle attackers involved and the teams defense held up in the long rallies that turned the match into a grind.
What helped swing the night was the presence of Decelise Champion, who made a significant impact after entering the match and gave Wisconsin another layer it needed with Jaela Auguste and Grace Egan unavailable. Even without that full lineup, the Badgers looked composed in the biggest stretches, a good sign for a team trying to stack wins while learning how to finish against elite competition. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Commit Kingston Allen Keeps Fueling A Ranking Debate
Kingston Allen keeps giving Wisconsin fans another reason to watch the 2027 class closely. The Badgers commit has been piling up huge numbers early in his high school career, building a rsum that already puts him in rare company among young running backs. Even with that production, national recruiting services still have him listed outside the very top tier, with 247 Sports slotting him at No. 150 overall and as a four-star.
The disconnect is what makes Allen such an interesting name to track from Wisconsins side. His weekly output suggests a player doing far more than just holding serve against expectations, and it raises the familiar recruiting question of whether some prospects are being judged more by ranking inertia than by what they keep showing on the field. For the Badgers, the appeal is obvious: if he keeps producing at this rate, the debate around where he belongs nationally is only going to get louder. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Already Has One Debate Fans Wont Ignore After Notre Dame
Wisconsins night against Notre Dame offered the sort of split-screen performance that can follow a team for a while: a defense that looked locked in early, then a second half that went sideways and turned a competitive showing into a lopsided loss. For a Badgers program trying to define itself under Luke Fickell, the game served as both a reminder of how sturdy the baseline can be and how quickly things can unravel when the margin for error shrinks.
Thats why the postgame conversation has already moved past the score and into the bigger picture. Former Badgers running back Montee Ball saw enough in the long view to feel good about where Wisconsin could be down the road, while Fickell framed it as a game with lessons to extract rather than a dead end. The tension now is obvious: the Badgers have evidence they can look the part for stretches, but they still have to show they can carry it for four quarters. [Read more 🡒]