LINCOLN, Neb. – The No. 2 seeded Badgers grinded out an offensive battle to take down No. 6 Texas A&M 25-21,18-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13 in a five-set thriller on Friday night to advance to the Regional Final for the seventh-straight year.
Sarah Franklin led the team with 21 kills, as Carter Booth finished with a career-high 14 kills. Anna Smrek added 10 to round out double-figure kills. The team hit .257 (67 kills – 22 errors – 175 attempts) on the night.
Texas A&M hit .223 (68 – 26 – 188) as Logan Lednicky held a match-high 23 kills.
The Aggies (21-8) got out to a hot start, tallying three kills in a row to take a 5-2 lead and force an early UW (26-6) timeout in the first set. Out of the timeout, the Badgers slowly chipped away at the lead to tie it back up at seven-all. Neither team led by more than two points, as they battled back and forth. Lola Schumacher extended the lead for the Badgers with a clutch ace to put UW up 23-20 and prompt an Aggie timeout. Wisconsin came out of the break and Franklin scored a kill out of the back row to bring up set point. Texas A&M held off one set point before Smrek called game with a kill down the line to win it 25-21.
Once again, the Aggies came out strong to start the set as the Badgers burned both of their timeouts early trailing 5-11. The Badgers put together a couple 3-1 runs to bring it back to just a 12-16 deficit, but Wisconsin couldn’t break through as they lost the second set…
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