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In the first set, sophomore opposite hitter Valentina Vaulet delivered her second straight service ace to hammer home a 25-21 set win. But one set win wasn’t enough for the Michigan volleyball team on Sunday.
Despite taking that first set, the Wolverines (15-4 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) fell short against No. 9 Wisconsin (13-4, 7-1), losing the match 3-1. In its first matchup against a top-10 team, Michigan put it all together early but collapsed thereafter.
Crisler Center was rocking early as the Wolverines jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set, anchored by a block from graduate outside hitter Allison Jacobs and junior middle blocker Serena Nyambio.
A back-and-forth set ensued, with neither team leading by more than three at any point. Coming out of a timeout up 22-21, senior middle blocker Jacque Boney slammed a kill to push the lead to two and bring the serve back to Vaulet who went on to secure the set.
“I thought we did a nice job with our blocks and our passes,” Michigan coach Erin Virtue said. “We stayed in our system and attacked really smart in the first set.”
The second set was the polar opposite of the first. After an early kill from Jacobs put the Wolverines up 1-0, they crumbled. Six straight Badger points, a majority of which came on Michigan errors, forced the Wolverines to take a timeout.
But even after talking it over, they were unable to stop the bleeding. Wisconsin recorded six blocks on 11 Michigan attack errors in the set, as the Badgers rolled to a 25-10 set win.
“They kind of spun where they started,” Virtue said. “So we had a different matchup. I didn’t think we adjusted to that as well as we needed to. Their service pressure certainly enhanced in the second set, and that made it tougher on our attack too.”
Despite a demoralizing second set, the Wolverines came out of the intermission fired up, playing Wisconsin close early in the third. However, a 5-1 Badger run into the media timeout saw them pull ahead 15-9. Michigan still put up a fight, clawing back to 21-20 on a Jacobs kill, but that wasn’t enough as it fell 25-20.
The fourth set provided much of the same. The Wolverines kept it close early, keeping the score tied at 11-11, and trailed just 15-13 at the media timeout. But Wisconsin’s star power was too much to keep up with as outside hitter Sarah Franklin — the defending NCAA Division I Player of the Year — and middle blocker Anna Smrek — an All-Big Ten First Team honoree last season — overpowered Michigan with a .640 hitting percentage in the set.
Despite all of the Badgers’ talent — Wisconsin has five players who have earned first team all-conference honors in their careers — the Wolverines weren’t pleased with just a first set victory.
“We need to learn just how to be consistent,” Boney said. “We have ups and downs, which is normal volleyball, but I think we just need to learn how to be able to weather the storm and stick to Michigan volleyball.”
Facing its first top-10 team of the season, the Wolverines showed a glimpse of potential but struggled to consistently play sound volleyball. Regardless of Michigan’s hot start, Wisconsin’s experience and star power were eventually too much to handle.
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