Wisconsin vs Marquette volleyball takeaways: Badgers display depth in sweep over in-state rival

MILWAUKEE Marquette had the usual hallmarks of a home event at Fiserv Forum as it faced Wisconsin volleyball on Sept.

17.The student section had the same Thunderstruck clap beforehand as it does for men's basketball games, and U2s Where the Streets Have No Name played during Marquette player introductions.But somewhat like the red-dominating seating bowl behind the student section, the Badgers dominated on the court, 25-15, 25-14, 25-18, to win their fifth straight against their in-state rival.BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 3, Marquette 0Marquettes only leads of the night were in the third set at 5-4 and 6-5, and it remained close for much of the set.

But Wisconsin eventually pulled away with a 6-0 scoring run.

The Sept.

17 match likely would have been even more one-sided had it not been for Wisconsins 11 service errors.Here are three takeaways from the in-state volleyball showdown:Wisconsin (efficiently) shows its depthHeading into the Marquette match, Mimi Colyer and Grace Egan combined to account for 150 of Wisconsins 294 kills this year.Colyer and Egan were atop the Badgers side of the box score against the Golden Eagles with 13 and nine kills, respectively.

But Sheffields group also showed off its depth, with five players finishing with at least five kills.Thats what makes us so good, Colyer said.

Our passers really handled it today, and I think it gave Charlie (Fuerbringer) a lot of options when she was deciding where to go.

And I think when we do have people scoring from all over the court, were unstoppable.

We run a really good offense.Wisconsin put up some unstoppable hitting numbers, particularly in the first two sets.

The Badgers hit .640 in the first set and .600 in the second set.When youre ending after set two with only two hitting errors, that just doesnt come around very often, Sheffield said.A sloppier third set with seven attack errors after one each in the first two sets brought down the overall hitting percentage to .487.

Even then, it was the second-highest hitting percentage of the season for the 6-1 Badgers (only behind .488 hitting against Georgia Tech).Marquette, meanwhile, hit for a mere .087 against Wisconsin.

MU is the third of UWs seven opponents to hit below .100 against the Badgers, joining Chicago State and UW-Milwaukee.

No team not even Texas has hit above .300 against the Badgers this season.No answers for Carter Booth in middleCarter Booth, at 6-foot-7, was a matchup challenge for Marquette, which does not have anyone on its roster taller than 6-foot-3.She had seven kills tied for her season-high in three-set matches on 12 total attacks without any attack errors.

Her .583 hitting percentage was the most among UW players with at least five total attacks.

Her three blocks were tied for the most on the Badgers.Booth had the benefit of some excellent setting from Fuerbringer, who said she knew at the beginning we wanted to really establish our middles.

(Fuerbringer had 32 assists and only one setting error.)Her and Charlie have put a lot of work in together, Sheffield said.

It's a connection.

Any time its middle, its a setter-middle.

They need both of them to do it.

Carter works hard.

She works hard to get into space.

She works hard in transition.

Charlie was finding her, and she was hitting good shots facing one way, going a different way.

...

When youre doing that and mixing in a tip here or there, it becomes really difficult to defend.Fellow middle blocker Alicia Andrew also had a productive night against the Golden Eagles, recording five kills without any errors in nine total attacks.

The Baylor transfer also had three blocks.Natalie Ring is silver lining for Blue and GoldFirst-year Marquette coach Tom Mendoza was a little disappointed in overall our level of focus after the Golden Eagles third loss of the season.I thought when we played focused, we showed that we can play at that level, Mendoza said.

The challenge of volleyball is sustaining.

...

Whether it was Wisconsin, the environment, whatever it was, we just werent able to stay focused the way that were capable of.But Mendoza did have a lot to like about the way Natalie Ring has continued to play in her junior season.

Ring had 10 kills while hitting .318 against the seventh-ranked Badgers.

It extended her streak of games with 10-plus kills to eight games to start the season.Obviously, she had some kills and hit for a good percentage, Mendoza said.

But I was thrilled with her first contact serve-receive not just the quality, but how comfortable she looked, the way she was processing challenging serves from Wisconsin and staying mostly in her comfort zone.Ring has earned the respect of the college coach in the Madison native's figurative backyard, as Sheffield believes Ring is putting up an All-American season up to this point.She was kind of a handful to deal with, Sheffield said.

Shes got so many shots.This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin vs Marquette volleyball: Badgers display depth in sweep.

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