Wisconsin, the No. 1 overall seed, played an excellent serve and pass game on Saturday to sweep BYU in the local semifinals of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
Wisconsin won 3-0 (25-20, 25-17 and 25-12) overwhelmingly, and BYU’s offense kept the entire game in balance, with accurate deliveries and excellent hits from the 6-foot-8 All- American Dana Rettke.
The victory pushed the undefeated Badgers (15-0) to the regional championship against Sunday’s winner of Ohio State and Florida. BYU ended the season with a 17-2 record, with Wisconsin releasing the Cougars’ winning streak for ten games.
BYU coach Heather Olmstead said her team went from one of the highs of the season after beating UCLA in the region to one of the lows after the loss in Wisconsin, “but I’m really proud of what reached this team and how they grew and loved each other. ”
Olmstead said BYU had the best chance of upsetting the top seed produced with serve and forcing Wisconsin to play outside their system, but that service pressure did not happen and that the Badgers had the entire game in their system played, which made it very difficult.
“We knew we had to serve harder than we did, and then we had to succeed,” Olmstead said. “We knew they were a good serving team and we had to succeed, so offensively we had to attack better and then defend them again. I mean, they hit over 300 and that’s their MO
‘We had to do a lot of things, to serve tough and try to keep it offensive. I think we did so early. I thought we had some good blocks. I thought we got in their face early and disrupted them a little early in that first set. We did our job and we knew our assignments and had some proper attacks to slow it down. ‘
BYU had the chance to put pressure on the first set, which was close, but service fouls killed a late rally.
Wisconsin kept alive throughout the night with timely excavations that Cougar killers had to get murders. Olmstead said she would have to watch the film to see what exactly happened on sets that her team had to score, but not since Wisconsin attacked BYU’s second line regularly and put precise pressure on her defense.
‘I do not know if we tried to avoid their block or went around their block or not hit their block, but yes, offensively, when we came defensively around their block, they were there. They got good touch. We tried to take courageous swings and killed them. It’s just that they do not go down.
‘A lot of it was because we were not at the system and it’s really hard to get a score outside the system, and then you put a big block in front of you and a good defender behind it and you’re going to struggle. Kudos to them. I thought they were playing well. ”
Olmstead will return all its players next season and will add more to the series.
“Our goal is to win the conference championship and win the NCAAs,” she said.
Olmstead asked her group to take time and let in the season. They have not lost a game in a unique spring season since March because COVID-19 has suspended the usual fall schedule.
“We just took a moment to appreciate the year. It’s never nice to feel that way. I am very proud of this group. I have seen a lot, a lot, a lot of growth from the whole year 2020 to 2021 through this season, a lot of growth from this group, and more love, so much love, a lot of love has developed in this team for each other, for BYU, for volleyball, for so many different things.
“So we talked about the year and what a wild ride it was, and just appreciating all the moments and making you feel like you know how it feels.”