‘It’s been a long time coming for Badger nation’: Wisconsin women’s volleyball team wins first national title

The Wisconsin Badgers are NCAA volleyball champions. Finally.

In five neck-and-neck sets, No. 4 Wisconsin defeated No. 10 Nebraska, securing the national title in women’s volleyball.

This is the third year in a row the Badgers have made it to the Final Four, and the first time they’ve been victorious in the final game.

Wisconsin brought 24 blocks, a strong serve receive, 31 libero digs and back-row attacks from sophomore Jade Demps to rally against Nebraska, who’s the best-serving team in the Big Ten this season. Wisconsin (31-3) set a championship game record with the number of blocks.

The battle between the teams went back and forth. The first set went to Nebraska with a score of 22-25. The Badgers were down in the second, but came back to tie at 20. The two teams kept inching point by point, tying until Wisconsin won, 31-29. Wisconsin took the third game, 25-23, and then Nebraska took the fourth game, 23-25.

But the Badgers got an early lead in the fifth. The championship was almost theirs when Nebraska hit the ball out of bounds, but Nebraska challenged the point, saying the Badgers blockers touched the ball. The point was given to Nebraska.

Middle blocker Dana Rettke claimed the Badgers’ victory with a slide kill, winning, 15-12.

Badgers coach Kelly Sheffield was speechless and teary after the match.

“This was such a hard match to score, and our kids just stick with it,” he told ESPN. “I’m just proud of them.”

Saturday’s victory is the reason the Badgers have a handful of super seniors on the team: Rettke, setter Sydney Hilley and defensive specialists Lauren Barnes and Giorgia Civita. The players took advantage of an extra season following the disruptions of the pandemic in 2020 with the goal of bringing the team to the NCAA final once again — this time to win.

“It’s been a long time coming for Badger nation,” Rettke told ESPN immediately following the game.

Sheffeild echoed Rettke’s sentiments: “They came back for this. They came back to do this for each other.”

“It was epic,” he added.

Saturday’s victory caps long run for Badgers

In November, the Badgers won the Big Ten championship for the third consecutive year.

On Friday, Rettke was named the National Player of the Year, an award she credited to the strength of her entire team. Rettke is the first player to ever be a five-time first team All-American.

Wisconsin and Nebraska faced each other twice throughout the season leading up to the match, with the Badgers winning both times. Saturday’s game was the first time since 2013 the final game was a Big Ten matchup.

Nebraska has five national championships — one of them being a win over Wisconsin in 2000.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct that it was the Badgers’ third consecutive year in the Final Four.