Back pain doesn’t stop Wisconsin volleyball’s Sarah Franklin from record-setting night vs. Marquette

MADISON – Sarah Franklin has the ability to make the ridiculous seem routine.

Wisconsin volleyball’s senior outside hitter did it again Tuesday night, using an array of shots to put together a record-hitting performance in leading the team to a 3-1 victory over Marquette in front of a crowd of 15,084 at the Kohl Center.

Franklin finished with 33 kills, a program record for a four-set match, while posting a .517 hitting percentage. The performance broke Dana Rettke’s record of 30 kills against Minnesota during the 2018 season.

That said we didn’t know how impressive the night was until Badgers coach Kelly Sheffield explained the back pain his star player fought to compete.

The back issues explained why Franklin was often jogging on the court during timeouts and sometimes in between points.

“Trying to keep her back loose was an all-day thing and an all-match type of thing,” Sheffield said. “I’m sure she got an awful lot of steps in.

“To play that performance with her back as tight as what it was, (in) as much as pain as she was, she is an absolute warrior,” Sheffield said. “That is one of the best matches I’ve ever seen a player do under the circumstances. It was fantastic.”

Wisconsin improved to 4-3 with the 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 victory. The win was marked not only by Franklin’s play, but senior setter Carly Anderson’s last-minute start at setter and season-high 15 kills for senior right-side/middle blocker Anna Smrek.

For Marquette, senior Carsen Murray finished with 12 kills and a .632 hitting percentage, while senior outside Aubrey Hamilton added 10 kills, posting six and a .462 hitting percentage during the first set.

Here are four takeaways from the night.

Sarah Franklin got better as the night went along

Judging by Franklin’s play, her back must have felt better as the night went along because she was at her best down the stretch.

Here are her hitting numbers set by set.

1 – five kills, zero errors, 13 swings, .385 hitting percentage.

2 – nine kills, zero errors, 16 swings, .563 hitting percentage.

3 – seven kills, one error, 14 swings, .429 hitting percentage.

4 – 12 kills, one errors, 17 swings, . 647 hitting percentage.

Franklin, who also recorded her 1,500th career kill during the match to move into fifth place all-time in the program, sliced shots cross court, went down the line and even had three or four of her tips drop. It was that kind of night.

Anderson assisted the bulk of Franklin’s points, but she showed her ability to connect with any passer. In the third set defensive specialist Gulce Guctekin had three assists and middle blocker Caroline Crawford and libero Lola Schumacher had one each.

“Sarah makes the game so easy for a setter and for the whole team,” Anderson said. “You saw that throughout the whole match, but at the end especially. You can give her the ball and she is going to score no matter what kind of ball it is. That’s some crazy game that she has. She had my back. Everyone had my back throughout the entire match, but she especially did and she’s awesome.”

UW doesn’t miss beat without Charlie Fuerbringer

Fuerbringer watched the action with walking boot on her right leg. It wasn’t until a few hours before the match that Wisconsin’s starting setter was ruled out.

Enter Anderson, who has set sparingly this season, but set 101 matches during her career at Montana. She stepped back into that role easily.

She tied Fuerbringer’s season-high of 51 assists but needed one fewer set to do it. UW finished the night with a season-high .355 hitting percentage.

“It’s why we brought Carly in,” Sheffield said. “She’s probably one of the most experienced setters in the country going into her fifth year … It’s not easy being told a few hours before match time that you’re running the show and we saw her composure and her connection. We hit for a pretty a good percentage as the match went on.”

MU’s Carsen Murray’s remained efficient

Murray didn’t have an error in 19 swings and posted a season-high .632 hitting percentage while also leading the Golden Eagles in blocks (four) and points (14½).

The performance marked the second time in three matches that she hit better than .500, work that pushed her season hitting percentage to .402. That would rank second in the Big East based on ranking entering the week.

Badger block helps change course of match

Marquette opened the match with a .348 hitting percentage that led to a first-set win. From there the Golden Eagles’ productivity dipped, going to .214 in the second set and .029 in the third before rebounding to .306 in the final set.

Key to the shift was the Badgers’ productivity with their block. UW is traditionally one of the top teams in the nation in blocking. The team hasn’t reached that level yet this season, but runs like they had during the final three set Tuesday will help their cause.

UW doubled its blocks from the first set to the second and tripled its production during the final two sets. Smrek finished the night with six blocks. Senior Caroline Crawford was next with four and senior Devyn Robinson, who didn’t play in the first set and for most of the second, had three.

Adjusting to the speed of Marquette’s offense was key.

“Marquette runs a really fast tempo and they have some really good, experienced outsides on their team and they’re dynamic attackers so we want to be more dynamic on our block than their attack,” Smrek said. “Getting good blocks, it just bring so much energy to the team, but we just stayed consistent.”