Wisconsin
Wisconsin Badgers vollleyball team sweeps Northwestern but is left wanting more
Wisconsin volleyball unveils Final Four banner inside UW Field House
The Badgers unveiled the banner from their 2023 Final Four appearance before their exhibition match against Bradley on Aug. 20.
MADISON – Last month the Wisconsin volleyball team travelled to Evanston, Illinois, for a match with Northwestern and came home with a straight set win the Badgers captured by winning each set by at least nine points.
The rematch wasn’t nearly as easy even though UW scored a sweep in front of 7,229 Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House.
The Badgers, who are ranked No. 9 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, posted a 25-13, 25-23, 25-20 victory. UW recorded its fourth .400 hitting match of the season and recorded double-digit blocks for the third straight match.
The Badgers also held Northwestern (3-11, 1-5 Big Ten) to .211 hitting, which on the surface is good but not nearly as good as the first meeting when they held the Wildcats to a 0.67 hitting percentage.
Northwestern hit .324 during the final two sets.
“I’m not so sure we were as strong defensively as we like to pride ourselves on there towards the end,” UW coach Kelly Sheffield said. “But I’m certainly happy to get a 3-0 sweep and moving on to the next.”
Senior Sarah Franklin (14 kills, .355 hitting percentage) led the team in kills. The Badgers had four players take more than 10 swings and all hit better than .350. The others were senior Anna Smrek (13 kills, .500), senior Julia Orzol (10 kills, .526) and senior Devyn Robinson (seven kills, .455).
At the net, senior Caroline Crawford had eight blocks, one off her season high, and the Badgers finished with 12.
The victory was Wisconsin’s fifth straight and raised its record to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten.
Germantown graduate Lily Wagner, a sophomore whose mother, Amy Lee, played for the Badgers from 1994-97, shared Northwestern’s team lead of 10 kllls with Alexa Rousseau.
Graduate student Sophia Summers added seven kills and a .778 hitting percentage for the Wildcats but didn’t get a kill during the final set.
“I think our blockers didn’t do a great job of reading the situation and what our opponent was trying to do,” Sheffield said. “And I’m not sure we were always working hard enough to get good really good swings, terminating swings out of system for the first part of the match.
“I didn’t think our work-rate rate was particularly high, but there my be an element of nitpicking when you sweep a Big Ten opponent and hit north of .400.”
The match turned in the second set when Northwestern couldn’t put away UW after taking a 19-16 lead. Freshman Charlie Fuerbringer had a service run of five straight points to help the Badgers turn a 19-16 deficit into a 22-19 lead. Smrek had two kills during that run and five during the final seven points of the period.
“I just wanted to keep going,” Smrek said. “When we can get on a run and everything is working and in system we’ve just got to get the job done and just go up, give confidence to each other and take big rips.”
That stretch set the tone for the final set, which though close UW never trailed.
Robinson had five kills during that portion of the match when UW put on a clinic of shot making. Franklin, Orzol and Smrek also driled difficult shots that led to kills as the Badgers completed their fifth straight sweep.
Up next: No. 11 Oregon Friday night at the Field House.
Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde reflects on early March Madness exit
Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde said the Badgers ‘thought we could do so many things’ in the NCAA Tournament before it ended abrupty with an upset loss.
Wisconsin men’s basketball has added a sharpshooting wing via the transfer portal.
Miami (Ohio) transfer Eian Elmer has signed with the Badgers, the team announced April 18. The 6-foot-7 wing will join UW with one year of eligibility remaining.
Elmer averaged a career-high 12.7 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 49.8% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range in 2025-26. His production helped the RedHawks go 32-2 and earn an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
“We are really excited to add another excellent addition to our spring signees,” UW coach Greg Gard said in a release. “Eian brings a wealth of experience and scoring punch as a 6-7 wing. … A terrific shooter, his skillset and production fit excellently into our plan as we build out next year’s team. Throughout our evaluation process, our staff loved his size, power and skill and truly believe he will thrive in our system.”
Elmer is Wisconsin’s third transfer portal addition since the end of the 2025-26 season, joining former George Washington guard Trey Autry and former Hofstra forward Victory Onuetu. UW also added Australian guard Owen Foxwell.
The additions of Autry, Onuetu and now Elmer leave Gard’s staff with three more roster spots to fill ahead of the 2026-27 season.
The Badgers are looking to replace much of their production from a 2025-26 team that went 24-11. Nolan Winter is expected to be the team’s only returning starter after John Blackwell and Aleksas Bieliauskas entered the transfer portal and Nick Boyd and Andrew Rohde exhausted their eligibility.
MILWAUKEE – Friday’s severe storms have passed. And with that, the threat of any severe weather has also passed for the immediate future as no storms or rain are expected for several days.
However, plenty of damage remains across southeastern Wisconsin as of Saturday morning, in addition to the ongoing flooding threat.
Several area rivers are at flood stage, and there are multiple river flood warnings in effect.
FOX6 Weekend WakeUp on Saturday begins at 6 a.m.
On the scene in the morning
What we know:
Farmstead damage in Franklin
FOX6’s Hayley Spitler is in Franklin on Saturday morning, April 18, getting a daylight look at the damage from last night’s storms.
Storm damage in Caledonia
Friday’s storms left quite the mark across southern and southeastern Wisconsin, including at L and L Farms and Greenhouse in Caledonia.
FOX6 Weather Extras
Local perspective:
Meanwhile, FOX6Now.com offers a variety of extremely useful weather tools to help you navigate the stormy season. They include the following:
FOX6 Storm Center app
FOX LOCAL Mobile app
FOX Weather app
Maps and radar
We have a host of maps and radars on the FOX6 Weather page that are updating regularly — to provide you the most accurate assessment of the weather. From a county-by-county view to the Midwest regional radar and a national view — it’s all there.
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School and business closings
When the weather gets a little dicey, schools and businesses may shut down. Monitor the latest list of closings, cancellations, and delays reported in southeast Wisconsin.
FOX6 Weather Experts in social media
The Source: Information in this post was compiled by the FOX6 Weather Experts.
How Aleksas Bieliauskas has grown in first season with Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard has high praise for Aleksas Bieliauskas about a month into the Lithuania native’s freshman season.
MADISON – One of Wisconsin men’s basketball’s departing transfers is headed to an SEC program with some connections to the Badgers.
Ex-UW forward Aleksas Bieliauskas has committed to South Carolina, he announced on April 17.
Bieliauskas left the Badgers after appearing in all 35 games as a freshman and making 28 starts. He averaged 4.9 points and 4.4 points in 20.2 minutes, and highlights of his freshman year included his five 3-pointers in UW’s upset over eventual national champion Michigan.
He’ll join a program with plenty of Wisconsin ties. South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris was an assistant coach at Wisconsin from 2010-17 on Bo Ryan and Greg Gard’s staffs. South Carolina assistant coach Tanner Bronson and director of video services Roman DiPasquale also are UW alumni.
Bieliauskas is the second of UW’s four departing transfers to commit to a new school. Reserve forward Jack Robison committed to North Dakota State on April 15. Starting guard John Blackwell and reserve forward Riccardo Greppi have not announced their next schools yet.
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