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Wisconsin Beats No. 17 Florida in Five
Wisconsin was 1-3 and ranked fifth. Florida arrived 2-0, hit better, blocked twice as often and lost the fifth set 15-13 at a sold-out Field House.
No. 5 Wisconsin beat No. 17 Florida 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 25-19, 24-26, 15-13) at the UW Field House on Wednesday night, and it took the Badgers until their fifth match of the season to win one at home.
Wisconsin had lost three of its first four and the AVCA coaches ranked it fifth anyway. Florida arrived at 2-0 and had beaten No. 11 Minnesota 3-1 in the same building on Tuesday.
The Field House was sold out. Both schools' boxes put the crowd at 7,229, roughly three times the 2,555 who watched Minnesota beat Auburn on the same floor a few hours earlier.
Lynney Tarnow, a freshman middle blocker for Wisconsin, had never played a match in the building. She left it with 16 kills on .429 hitting and five blocks.
Wisconsin's first four matches came against Kentucky, Louisville, Stanford and Pittsburgh, ranked third, seventh, fifth and fourth at the time, and it had won one of them.
Lynney Tarnow, Wisconsin freshman middle blocker, to uwbadgers.com:
I've been waiting to play in the Field House for so long now, so I think just the energy and feeling the crowd having our backs and the support through a five-setter was such a cool feeling.
Florida Hit Better and Blocked Twice as Often
Florida hit .265, with 57 kills against 16 errors on 155 swings, and the Wisconsin box credits the Gators with 16 blocks to its eight. Kamryn Chaney had 22 kills and Lily Hayes 18 digs.
Wisconsin hit .257, with 71 kills against 27 errors on 171 swings, and won. Audrey Flanagan had 18 kills, Grace Egan 17 and Tarnow 16, with Charlie Fuerbringer setting 55 and digging 15.
The difference is 16 swings. A side that hit worse, blocked half as often and made 11 more errors still won a five-setter, because it kept getting the ball back and asking Florida the question again.
Florida led the fifth set and lost it 15-13, a night after it had opened the upset of Minnesota by taking a first set 27-25. Across all five sets Wisconsin scored 109 points to Florida's 104.
The Big Ten's Own Ledger Does Not Add Up
Two days into Challenge Week the Big Ten posts the head-to-head as 11-8 in its favour. Count the results printed underneath that line and there are 20 of them, and they come out 12-8.
We are printing 12-8, because a list of matches can be checked one at a time and a summary line cannot.
The Big Ten took seven of Wednesday's 11. Kentucky swept UCLA while hitting .346 with seven aces, Texas swept USC on a season-best .309, and Purdue needed five sets to beat Georgia at Mackey Arena.
Wisconsin plays Auburn in the same building on Thursday. A team that was ranked fifth at 1-3 has now beaten a ranked team, and the poll looks a little less strange than it did on Monday.
