MADISON, Wisc. – Washington’s unbeaten start to the season came to a halt in Madison today as the 9th-ranked Badgers beat the 25th-ranked Huskies in straight sets in front of 7,229 fans at the UW Field House. Washington (13-1, 3-1 Big Ten) struggled out of the gate and despite getting more comfortable as the match progressed, could not grab the close third set to extend things against Wisconsin (9-4, 3-1 Big Ten).
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Huskies in the first set, as they fell 25-8 and made 10 attacking errors. Set two saw some improvement, as UW hit .094, but not enough to threaten, as Wisconsin went up 2-0 with a 25-14 win. The third set saw the Huskies finally settling in, trading points for long stretches and being within one point late at 19-20, but Wisconsin was able to close out the sweep with a 25-21 win. The Huskies hit .370 in the third to have something to build on going forward.
Senior Kiune Fletcher had one of her best matches, leading the team with seven kills and hitting .294, but the Huskies as a whole had a tough day offensively, hitting a season-low .114. But the real issue was the Badger offense, which had only one error after two sets and wound up hitting .486 for the match. Only one of UW’s previous 13 opponents had even hit over .200 against the Huskies, and that was Georgia just getting over the .200 mark at .216.
Washington has been a strong…
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