Wisconsin volleyball pushed to five sets before advancing to NCAA regional final

Sarah Franklin loves a challenge.

The Wisconsin Badgers’ fifth-year senior used that mentality to mold herself into a national player of the year. The mindset also helps her keep her cool in tense moments and dig deep in situations like what she and her teammates were faced with Friday night.

Texas A&M refused to be pushed off the court. UW swept in the Aggies in September, but in the NCAA regional semifinal the underdogs forced the Badgers to go the distance.

Franklin embraced the moment.

“At that point it’s let’s just ball out,” she said. “Let’s play the ball that we know we’ve been playing. Look forward. You see red, go for it.”

That fire helped Wisconsin score a 25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13 victory over A&M at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Nebraska that sends the Badgers to the regional final for the eighth straight season.

Next up: Wisconsin vs. Nebraska for a spot in the Final Four at 2 p.m. Sunday.

But first excuse the Badgers as they catch enjoy the moment.

“This tournament has been something else,” UW coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I mean, it’s just balanced. … I think everybody that watched that match was in for a treat. I thought it was two teams that were laying it all out there just making big time plays.”

A&M upset Arizona State, the No. 3 seed in that quarter of the bracket in the second round last week. Friday they put UW on its heels with outstanding play from outside hitter Logan Lednicky (23 kills, .271 hitting percentage), efficient swings from their middle hitters and a defense that earned the rare distinction of out-blocking UW, 14.5 to 13.5.

UW, however, survived with an all-hands-on-deck effort that included a team-high 21 kills for Franklin. Her 66 swings were three short of her career high.

Junior middle blocker Carter Booth finished with a career-high 14 kills with a .444 hitting percentage and nine blocks. Senior right-side hitter Anna Smrek also had nine blocks to go along with 10 kills.

Freshman Charlie Fuerbringer (56 assists, 12 digs) had her 11^th double-double and freshman libero Lola Schumacher’s 24 digs were her second-highest total of the season.

The match lasted 2 hours 35 minutes, but three moments proved critical.

* UW took the first set, but it needed to hit .543 without any errors to do it. Any less and A&M, which hit . .390 in that frame, may have been able to grab the early lead.

*The Badgers closed the third set with a 6-0 run that broke a 19-19 tie that gave them a 2-1 match lead. Seniors Julia Orzol (eight kills) had two kills during the run and senior Devyn Robinson (seven kills) added one.

* Wisconsin went on 5-0 run in the fifth set that gave it an 11-6 lead, a huge advantage in the abbreviated final frame. The lead provided just just enough cushion to withstand an Aggies comeback that cut the lead to one point before Franklin closed the match with a kill.

The Badgers survive to play another match.

“A lot of emotion,” Franklin said when asked to sum up her feels in the moment. “We have the privilege to (continue) to play and I think at that point it’s just so much gratitude for the people around me and how much they have continued to fight together to get to that point … we can just continue to play another day.”