Jaela Auguste shines, defense struggles in Wisconsin volleyball's win at Iowa

One of Wisconsin volleyball‘s streaks against its Big Ten neighbor to the southwest ended, but the more important streak stayed alive.

The sixth-ranked Badgers defeated unranked Iowa in four sets, 25-16, 26-28, 25-21, 25-17, on Oct. 18 at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.

The second set snapped the Badgers’ streak of 31 consecutive sets won against the Hawkeyes. UW did enough in the third and fourth sets, however, to win its 11th consecutive match against Iowa.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

<1 / 22

<2 / 22

<3 / 22

<4 / 22

<5 / 22

<6 / 22

<7 / 22

<8 / 22

<9 / 22

<10 / 22

<11 / 22

<12 / 22

<13 / 22

<14 / 22

<15 / 22

<16 / 22

<17 / 22

<18 / 22

<19 / 22

<20 / 22

<21 / 22

<22 / 22

UW middle blocker Jaela Auguste showed why she was a 2025 third-team All-American with her performance against the Hawkeyes.

Auguste finished with a career-high 20 kills while hitting .552. She also had at least a hand in five of UW’s seven blocks.

The Florida transfer was a factor from start to finish. Her 12 combined kills in the first two sets were an early bright spot. She then punctuated the Badgers’ win with kills on each of their last three points in the match-clinching fourth set.

Auguste was not the only middle blocker to shine against the Hawkeyes. Freshman Lynney Tarnow had 13 kills, coming up just short of her career-high of 16 kills in a five-set match against then-No. 17 Florida.

Outside of the middle blocker position, Decelise Champion had 14 kills, six digs and two blocks. But the 17-year-old star also had seven attack errors – a season-high – and a .206 hitting percentage.

<

‘s defense leads to subpar second set

What Wisconsin did – or more so what it didn’t do – defensively played a large part in a rare set loss to the Hawkeyes. (The last one was more than eight years ago.)

Iowa hit a match-high .405 in the second set and recorded more than twice as many kills than in the first set.

It was a sharp contrast from Iowa’s .077 hitting percentage in the first set. It also stands out against an Iowa team that previously hit .162 against then-No. 16 Penn State, .211 against then-No. 22 Michigan State and .173 against No. 13 Purdue.

While the defense might have been the biggest issue, there were other factors that put UW’s back row in a more difficult position. UW had only one block in the set and did not bring much serving pressure.

Wisconsin star freshman Audrey Flanagan returned to the starting lineup after sitting out against Maryland – a team with only two Big Ten wins so far. Sheffield said that it was simply a night off for Flanagan.

Flanagan had nine kills while hitting .444 against Iowa. That was while Champion, Auguste and Tarnow took more swings than the freshman who has often shouldered heavy workloads.

UW appeared to take a similar approach with usual starter Eva Travis sitting out the first and second sets. But after UW’s rare set loss to the Hawkeyes, Travis started the third set. Travis had three kills and one attack error in eight attempts.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jaela Auguste shines, defense struggles in Wisconsin volleyball’s win at Iowa