Wisconsin Badgers volleyball loses to Texas

(UW ATHLETICS) MADISON – The No. 8 Wisconsin volleyball team fell in three sets (27-29, 20-25, 14-25) to No. 5 Texas to wrap up their weekend of action at the Opening Spike Classic. 

The Badgers (1-1) stormed back in set one after falling behind early to the Longhorns, led by eight kills from outside hitter Grace Egan. Texas (2-0)  provided a quick 5-0 run midway through the set to give themselves a cushion. 

UW answered back by winning five of six rallies toward the latter half of the set, highlighted by an Egan kill with the help of an assist from setter Charlie Fuerbringer. A couple of errors and one final kill, however allowed the Longhorns to pull away and take home set one in extra points. 

Texas continued to attack on the offensive end in set two, putting together four separate 4-0 runs—including one final run to cap off set two after Wisconsin took a 21-20 advantage. 

From there, the Longhorns’ physical front forced the Badgers into a low hitting percentage, which finished at .141 (45 – 26 – 135) in comparison to Texas’ .296 (44 – 10 – 115) mark by the game’s conclusion. Wisconsin finished with 26 attack errors, in addition to 10.0 blocks turned in by the Longhorns. 

Senior Mimi Colyer notched her 1,500th career kill in the third set, as she finished with 14 during Sunday’s contest—tallying eight digs in the process. 

The aforementioned Egan enjoyed a solid showing for the Badgers by building on a strong performance in set one, finishing with her first double-double at UW with 12 digs and a team-high 16 kills. 

Una Vajagic earned her second career double-double in as many games, as the outside hitter tallied 10 kills and 14 digs in three sets of action.