Wisconsin overpowers Oregon in four to claim its spot in NCAA semifinals
NCAA Women
Lee Feinswog
December 9, 2023
The Badgers celebrate/UW Athletics
Wisconsin became the third No. 1 seed in as many regional finals Saturday to win its way into next week’s NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship by beating Oregon 25-22, 25-22, 25-27, 25-18.
Wisconsin (30-3), the No. 3 seed overall in the 64-team field, will play No. 7 Texas, which beat Stanford late Saturday night.
“Glad we get another week and looking forward to taking the show on to Tampa,” said Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield, whose team won the 2021 NCAA title.
“(Oregon coach Matt Ulmer) and I were talking before the match. Both of us were in this situation last year in the regional final. Both of us had match point to go to the final four and we both lost,” Sheffield said. Wisconsin lost to Pitt; Oregon to Louisville.
“You just can’t give up. And we didn’t.”
Big Ten player of the year Sarah Franklin led Wisconsin with 20 kills, an assist, an ace, 11 digs and a block. Temi Thomas-Ailara had 11 kills, five digs and two blocks, and Anna Smrek had 10 kills with two errors in 20 attacks to hit .400. She added a dig and seven blocks.
“I’m excited to be here,” said Franklin, who transferred to Wisconsin from Michigan State after the 2021 season. “This is a dream come true for a lot of people and to be able to be put into this opportunity with all of these girls is beyond words.”
The middles came up big for Wisconsin. Carter Booth had six kills, a dig and nine blocks. Caroline Crawford had two kills in four errorless trles, three digs and seven blocks.
Setters MJ Hammill and Izzy Ashburn combined for 49 assists and each had an ace. Their team hit 313. Julia Orzol had 16 digs and four assists and Gulce Guctekin had 17 digs, an assist and an ace.
“About half of our team has never been to a final four,” said Smrek, who was the star of the 2021 gathering. “I’m stoked that they get to experience that and their first time is like it was my freshman year.”
As they sat down for their post-match news conference, Sheffield grabbed his water bottle and toastd with Devyn Robinson, Franklin and Smrek.
“This was a total team effort,” Sheffield said. ” … We had no give up tonight. Just the amount of fight to keep the ball off the floor, the pursuit to give ourselves a chance and stay in a rally was the best I’ve ever seen. And the mental toughness after they beat you with the speed of their attack, where our players could have been,” and Sheffield grunted in frustration, “but to be able to move on to the next play.”
Sixth-seeded Oregon of the Pac-12 ended its season 29-6. Mimi Colyer led with 20 kills but had 12 errors. She added an assist, an ace and 12 digs. Five other Ducks had eight or more kills, 11 by Morgan Lewis, who had a dig and a block.
Hannah Pukis not only had 49 assists, but nine kills with two errors in 17 tries to hit .412. She had an ace and a block. Her team hit .207.
“Wow,” Sheffield said. “The amount of stress that that team can cause, with their experience, with their serve, with their speed, congrats to Oregon on a great, great year and a great match.”
Wisconsin, which won the program’s only NCAA title in 2021, held a 16-4 advantage in blocks. The Badgers are back in the national semifinals for the fourth time in five years.
“That team is excellent,” Oregon coach Matt Ulmer said. “To be able to block the way they block and have those scramble plays they had. Some amazing effort play. That combo is really, really rare and I thought their heart was great.
“I’m really proud of our group. We battled really, really hard and we left everything we had out there. You’ve to to win those close sets in the beginning and we didn’t. And that’s the difference. We gave everything we had but Wisconsin was better.”
Wisconsin’s Anna Smrek, left, and Carter Booth are over this attempt by Oregon’s Mimi Colyer/Tom Lynn, Wisconsin Athletic Communications
