By james art The world was different in the fall of 2013. The iPhone was only on its fifth version. How I Met Your Mother was on TV in its penultimate season. An amazingly tall but skinny rookie named Giannis Antetokounmpo just started playing for the Milwaukee Bucks.
It was also the last time the Nebraska Cornhuskers beat the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, WI in volleyball until Friday night.
The No. 2 Huskers (10-0 Big Ten, 20-1 overall) entered the UW Field House and defeated the No. 7 Wisconsin Badgers (9-2, 16-5) in straight sets (21-25, 22- 25, 19-25 ) and shut the hell up mob.
The first set started close, but Nebraska took a 10-8 lead after two straight blocks. The Huskers had their block really on fire early against the Badgers, especially senior outside hitter Sarah Franklin. The Huskers always used two to three blockers on the Badgers’ star, especially in the first set, and the UW offense had a hard time finding alternative options.
With Nebraska leading 15-13, senior outside hitter Julia Orzol had two straight kills to tie the set. But the Huskers went on a 3-0 run to get within 18-15 and didn’t let the first set out of sight. UW faced multiple set points down 24-19 and fought back to within two before outside hitter Merritt Beeson sealed the set for the Huskers at 25-21. Franklin was held to negative shots in the first set with the Husker’s block — not usually what they’re known for — humming.
In the second set, UW fell behind 12-7 early and called a timeout before his block started to click. Senior middle blocker CC Crawford provided a big defensive spark in the second set when the Badgers needed something, and she posted three blocks in quick succession, including one to make it 17-14 and force a Nebraska timeout. It looked like the Badgers were gaining momentum and could take advantage to tie the game 1-1, especially with some impressive serving from junior Gulce Guchtekin.
But Nebraska didn’t fall apart in “The Dungeon” — accidentally coined by a former Husker player in 2021 while talking about the team’s struggles in the Field House. Instead, Nebraska had back-to-back points that included two huge pancakes to re-tie the set at 19-19. Nebraska got an ace that made it 22-21 before the Huskers got set point 24-21. Beason again put the bow on the set, scoring the kill to make it 25-22 and quiet the crowd.
The Badgers played well enough to prevail everywhere except on offense, where they hit just .086 after two frames. Nebraska held senior Anna Smrek, senior Devin Robinson, junior Carter Booth and Crawford to either negative (Smrek and Crawford) or .000 (Robinson and Booth). UW had 24 offensive errors and Nebraska outrebounded the Badgers 10-9 in the game.
In the third set, UW was down 7-2 but came back to go ahead 10-9 after Franklin got a kill that forced a Husker timeout. It was back and forth from there, but Nebraska went on a 3-0 run to go up 18-15. The Badgers couldn’t get back into the match and Nebraska closed out the third set on a 5-0 run to celebrate a rare but well-deserved victory in Madison.
Nebraska shut out Sarah Franklin in the first set. The Huskers then faced a Wisconsin run in the second set that would crush other Nebraska teams and took the second set. It then went on to outscore the Badgers for the road win and showed why they are in the conversation for the No. 1 seed.
For Wisconsin, they will have to lick their wounds, losing two games in the Big Ten title race to both the Huskers and Penn State, both still undefeated in conference play. The Badgers will play the Huskers and Penn State later in the season, but will obviously need to play much better than they did tonight when they were downright stunned at home.
Next up for UW is a road game against the Illinois Fighting Illini (7-4, 15-6) on Sunday. This game is at 1:00 PM and is televised on Big Ten Plus.