In a marquee boarder battle match up between No. 5 Minnesota and No. 6 Wisconsin, the Gophers’ upset their bitter rival in a 3-0 sweep of the Badgers.
Recently named AVCA Player of the Week, sophomore opposite hitter Stephanie Samedy led the Gophers’ with 14 kills in the teams third straight sweep to start Big Ten conference play.
In the first set of a highly contested match the Gophers started hot leading 5-2. From there on throughout the set it was as neck and neck. Samedy started on fire for the Gophers’ racking up seven kills before the first break of the night.
The Gophers’ scored multiple points on competitive rallies showing the teams ability to stay zoned in and finish out the point.
The Gophers’ took a 10-7 lead after a dominating spike by Samedy.
After back-and-forth points the Gophers were up 17-11 when Wisconsin went on a 3-0 run, reducing the Gophers lead to 17-14.
After a timely kill by redshirt sophomore Reagan Pittman it swung the momentum back in favor of the Gophers who went onto win the set 25-16 after scoring eight of the next ten points.
Samedy led the Gophers with eight kills while hitting .778 percent. Junior Alexis Hart followed with five kills. The defense was also a contributing factor throughout the set where Minnesota had 19 digs.
Wisconsin started off strong in the second set taking an early 5-2 lead. The Gophers’ started coming back after few service errors by Wisconsin and two kills by Hart.
Wisconsin had a slight 10-8 lead midway through the set when the Gophers caught fire going on a 6-0 run and taking the lead 14-10.
From there the set went back-and-forth where the Gophers would score two points and the Badgers would answer with two of their own.
The Gophers were ahead 20-15 but the Badgers fought back 22-20.
The Badgers fight wasn’t enough as the Gophers won the set off a powerful Samedy spike to go ahead 2-0 and winning the second set 25-21.
Hart led the Gophers in the second set with 5 kills.
The Gophers began the final set dominating the Badgers scoring the first eight points of the match and never looked back.
An early attack was a total team effort where Samedy and Hart had two kills along with a service ace by senior Stephanie Seliger-Swenson.
Although the Badgers began to fight back it was all too late. The Gophers lead by at least five throughout the entire set and completed the sweep with a 25-15 score in the final set.
