3 takeaways from Wisconsin's exhibition win, surprising fourth set

MADISON – Ahead of a gauntlet of early-season challenges, Wisconsin volleyball had anything but a challenge in the three sets of its exhibition match that officially counted.

The Badgers bested Butler in straight sets, 25-14, 25-10, 25-13, in an Aug. 14 exhibition at the UW Field House. The Bulldogs put up much more of a fight in the unofficial fourth set until UW pulled away with a 30-28 win.

Wisconsin had a 38-11 advantage in kills while hitting .338 in the three consequential sets. Six UW players finished with at least four kills. No Butler player had more than one kill until the third set.

Here are three takeaways from the Badgers‘ highs and lows of the exhibition win:

Grace Lopez wasted little time in making a statement in her first match against another collegiate team since missing more than a year with a knee injury.

The former Miami (FL) transfer had four service aces in the first set alone as Butler had seemingly no answers for her topspin serve.

“In case anybody has forgotten what kind of talent she is, I think that was a reminder today of what we knew that we were getting when she decided to come here,” Sheffield said.

Wisconsin’s other topspin-serving player, Grace Egan, delivered another two aces. Lopez and Egan’s combined six aces were in addition to other plays where the topspin serve seemed to keep the Bulldogs out of sorts.

“Our spin servers set the tone at the beginning of the match – Grace times two – and just really put a lot of pressure until our float servers could get a little bit more comfortable behind the service line,” Sheffield said.

The Badgers’ other servers eventually found their groove as well, helping the Badgers finish with 14 aces in the first three sets. (Had it not been an exhibition, the Badgers would have neared the program record for service aces in a three-set match – 16 in a 1989 win over Northern Illinois.)

Other players with aces included setters Charlie Fuerbringer and Isabelle Hoppe with two each. Egan had another two aces in later sets to match Lopez’s team-high four. Kristen Simon and Natalie Wardlow each had one ace.

Egan had another two aces later in the match and finished the first three sets with a team-high nine kills while hitting .467. That was while playing two sets at opposite hitter and one at outside hitter.

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Butler – a team that posted a 12-17 overall record and 5-11 Big East record in 2025 – had the Badgers reeling early in the fourth set.

The Bulldogs forced an early Sheffield timeout as they jumped to a 10-2 lead. They also held a 12-4 lead and had more kills in that stretch than they did in the first two sets combined.

“I thought we came out a little bit sleepy in the start of the fourth set,” Sheffield said.

At the same time, Sheffield thought the Kyle Shondell-coached Bulldogs “showed a lot of fight” in the fourth set and “made us work for it.”

“Kyle’s out there fighting along with his team and just gave us exactly what we were hoping we were going to get tonight,” Sheffield said.

Then the Badgers, as Sheffield aptly put it, “dug in.” UW won 12 of the next 17 points to cut the deficit to one. Butler pulled ahead and faced set point four times. Wisconsin ultimately won the nail-biting set, 30-28.

Freshman outside hitter Audrey Flanagan, who was coming off a 17-kill performance in the alumni match, recorded nine kills in the extra long fourth set. UC-Santa Barbara transfer Eva Travis had six kills in the set.

“The ability of never giving up on yourselves or the team or what it is is a quality that elite teams have to have,” Sheffield said.

It was all in front of a Field House crowd – officially measured at 6,261 people – that brought plenty of enthusiasm at key moments.

“The crowd always does a really good job pouring into us,” Simon said. “Their energy means so much to us at every point, especially when they get up on their feet. … Every time that they just stand up and cheer for us, I think it really fires us up a lot and keeps us going.”

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Wisconsin kept Jaela Auguste – the 2025 third-team All-American and Florida transfer – out of the lineup for both the alumni match and exhibition. Sheffield said earlier in the week that her and Halle Thompson’s injuries “aren’t long-term things, but certainly we want no setbacks right now.”

Sheffield thought the other middle blockers “looked a little sluggish” in the exhibition against Butler while partly taking responsibility for that.

“We put them through a pretty tough practice yesterday – a lot tougher than what we typically do going into a match,” Sheffield said. “And I think it probably showed a little bit.”

Natalie Wardlow finished with four kills while hitting .800 in the three sets that officially counted. Sheffield noticed “a couple really, really nice swings” from the sophomore whose past playing time was often in serving situations.

“And then her serving got a little bit better in the second half of the match when she started adding her drop serve,” Sheffield said.

Freshman Lynney Tarnow had seven kills and two blocks although Sheffield thought UW was not “setting her as high as what she kind of needs.” Fellow freshman Kymora Scott appeared in the third set and the unofficial fourth set and had one kill and one attack error in each set.

“We’ve got some talent in that middle,” Sheffield said. “I feel comfortable with any one of those three, and certainly Jaela getting in the lineup and her potential is exciting.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 takeaways from Wisconsin’s exhibition win, surprising fourth set