Serving up six: Final dance at the Field House

MADISON, Wis. — After beating five-seed Penn State to advance to the sixth-straight NCAA Regional Final match, the No. 3 Badgers take on No. 6 Oregon (29-5) on Saturday at 7 p.m. for the right to the advance to the NCAA Championship on Dec. 14 and 17 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. Saturday’s match will be aired on ESPNU. 

1. TOURNAMENT RESUME: The Badgers improved to 68-25 (.722) in the program’s 27th NCAA tournament appearance. UW is 38-9 (.804) under head coach Kelly Sheffield in his 11th year in the championship. UW is 5-8 in NCAA Regional final action.

2. SPREADING THE LOVE: The Badgers had four players with double-digit kills against Penn State on Thursday—Sarah Franklin (15), Temi Thomas-Ailara (11), and Devyn Robinson (10) and Carter Booth (10). Wisconsin had four players with 10-plus kills two other times—Aug. 30 at Arkansas and Nov. 17 at Purdue.

3. HAMMER TIME: Wisconsin ranks second nationally with a .313 hitting percentage. Carter Booth leads the nation at .455 percent after hitting .750 (10-1-12) against Penn State on Thursday. Anna Smrek ranks third in the Big Ten and 23rd nationally at .396.



4. BLOCK BUSTER: UW outblocked Penn State, 17-4, on Thursday, the 18th time this season the Badgers had 10-or-more blocks and the fourth time had 15-or-more blocks in a match. Senior CC Crawford had a match-high and season-best 10 blocks against the Nittany Lions.

5. IT’S FUN AT THE TOP: The Badgers lead the nation with 3.06 blocks per set, outblocking 30-of-32 opponents this season. Sophomore Carter Booth ranks third nationally and leads the Big Ten with 1.58 blocks per set. CC Crawford ranks 23rd nationally and sixth in the Big Ten with 1.32 blocks per set while Anna Smrek ranks ninth in the conference with 1.13 blocks per set.

6. 1K UPCOMING: Senior Devyn Robinson has 999 career kills and will become the 26th Badger to record 1,000 kills in a career. She would become the second Badger to hit the grand mark this season after Sarah Franklin did it vs. Marquette on Sept. 13.