MADISON — The Wisconsin Badgers “weren’t that gritty of a team” earlier in the 2025 season, as longtime volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield saw it.
“But we’re learning to be that right now,” Sheffield said. “And that’s what we’re going to have to be.”
That grittiness was on display as No. 11 Wisconsin defeated No. 22 Minnesota in four sets, 25-20, 25-22, 18-25, 25-16, on Nov. 5 at the UW Field House in a win that will surely help the Badgers’ postseason résumé.
Here are three takeaways from the four-set win:
Mimi Colyer delivers again in battle between elite outside hitters
The Wisconsin-Minnesota match featured two of the best outside hitters in the Big Ten. Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer entered the match ranking second in the conference with 5.2 kills per set, and Minnesota’s Julia Hanson ranked fourth in the conference with 4.1.
Both players delivered impressive performances at the UW Field House.
“I thought people were treated to two elite outside hitters,” Sheffield said at the beginning of the post-match press conference.
Hanson had 21 kills while hitting .333 and attempting more attacks than Minnesota’s two next-highest players combined.
Colyer, meanwhile, had 21 kills while hitting .326. It was the Oregon transfer’s sixth match this season with at least 20 kills and her eighth consecutive match with at least 12 kills.
“She’s one of the top players in the country,” Sheffield said of Colyer. “When you have somebody like that that can take a lot of swings when we’re scrambling, that’s what an elite outside hitter does. … The other thing that she’s doing a good job with tonight if we’re finding her a little bit more in the back row.”
Wisconsin’s attack was hardly just the Colyer show, however. Middle blockers Carter Booth and Alicia Andrew combined to record 11 kills on 19 total attacks without any attack errors. Outside hitter Una Vajagic had 11 kills while hitting .259.
“I thought we were putting our hitters in really good positions,” Sheffield said.
Addy Horner bounces back
Addy Horner “did a really nice job setting,” Sheffield said in his opening remarks of the post-match press conference.
But Sheffield also mentioned later that the freshman setter had a “poor 15 minutes of the match” against Minnesota — poor enough to draw Sheffield’s ire.
“I kind of jumped on her a little bit, which is not something I typically do too much in game at a setter,” Sheffield said. “But she’s a pretty tough cookie and got right back to work and was really delivering some great balls.”
Wisconsin hit .311 against the Gophers, which was its second-highest hitting percentage against a ranked opponent this season. (The one better performance was UW’s .488 hitting against then-No. 21 Georgia Tech although the Yellow Jackets have since fallen out of the rankings.)
Horner also stepped up from the service line in the fourth set. She had three aces, two of which were in a serving run where the Badgers expanded their lead to a commanding 23-15.
“She had one where the court kind of just really opened up, and the ball dropped uncontested,” Booth said. “It helps build that momentum to finish strong and close it out really well.”
Wisconsin overcomes serve-receive woes
Minnesota challenged Wisconsin’s serve-receive game in a way that no other opponent has done in 2025.
The Gophers aced UW seven times in the four-set match — two more times than any of UW’s previous 20 opponents did.
“They’re just really aggressive behind the service line, really attacking into space between the passers,” UW libero Kristen Simon said.
It’s been a strength for Minnesota throughout the season, as the Gophers ranked fourth in the Big Ten in service aces this season ahead of the Nov. 5 matches. Minnesota had 15 service aces on Nov. 1 against USC and 11 service aces in three different matches this season. (That includes a road match against a ranked Purdue team.)
“There’s no lead that’s too big enough against those servers, and it really forces you to just be locked in mentally,” Sheffield said. “Not just our passers, but hitting your approach angles and driving and, when you got opportunities to get in good swings, doing that. Because for six rotations, they’ve got servers that are capable of going back there on a seven, eight, nine-point run.”
Una Vajagic in particular struggled with her serve-receive, suffering five reception errors. That’s more than she gave up in her last six matches at the UW Field House combined. Her only other match with more than two reception errors was when she had three in UW’s four-match win over Washington.
“They can do that against anybody, and clearly they did that against one of the best passers in the conference,” Sheffield said in reference to Vajagic and her five reception errors. “But she didn’t allow the other parts of her game to drop.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Badgers show ‘grittiness of this team’ in win over Minnesota
