MADISON – Wisconsin volleyball’s loss might have been summed up from someone several rows up along one of the sidelines in the UW Field House bleachers right before match point.
“We just can’t get out of our own way,” a fan said in an exasperated tone.
No. 6 Wisconsin fell to No. 21 Washington in five sets, 25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 18-25, 16-18, on Oct. 23 at the UW Field House. It was the Badgers’ first loss to a team outside the top 10 of the AVCA coaches poll at the time of the match.
The narrow loss for the Badgers had 12 ties and four lead changes in the fifth set alone. (There were 33 ties and 12 lead changes across all five sets.)
“And then we make three errors in a row to end it,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “And you can’t be doing that.”
Mental miscues add up for Badgers in critical moments
As Sheffield referenced, Wisconsin did not do itself any favors in the closing stretch.
The match ended on a Washington service ace – its eighth of the match. (That was tied for the Badgers’ most reception errors in a match this season.) Before that, UW setter Charlie Fuerbringer picked up her third service error of the match when she served the ball into the net.
On the penultimate rally of the match, outside hitter Eva Travis defended a ball that would have gone out of bounds and been a Wisconsin point. That would have given the Badgers a 16-15 lead, and that was before Decelise Champion’s 20th and final kill.
Instead, the rally ended with a kill by Washington’s Kylie Kleckner and gave the Huskies the 16-15 lead. Champion’s kill tied it at 16-16 before the Huskies benefited from the Badgers’ service error and reception error.
“What you don’t want to do – as that’s coming, your eyes are up, and the line is down, and the people are scrambling – is letting a ball go and it clips the line,” Sheffield said. “You can’t have that happen. So you’d much rather play a ball if you think it’s close in that situation than not.”
While those were perhaps the three most recent self-inflicted wounds, they weren’t the only ones in the Badgers’ first home loss of 2026. There was a foot fault call on Jaela Auguste in the set.
Sheffield’s group also blew 23-19 and 24-21 leads in the second set. The Huskies finished the set on an 8-2 run and fought off four Wisconsin set points.
“You have an opportunity to go up on a team, 2-0, and we let our foot off the gas,” Sheffield said.
Wisconsin’s left-side hitters struggle against Huskies
A combined 25 kills from Wisconsin’s two starting outside hitters would often be part of a winning formula for the Badgers.
It was less effective against the Huskies, however, as Travis and Audrey Flanagan each finished with seven attack errors. Travis hit .083 on 36 swings, and Flanagan hit .211 on 38 swings.
Flanagan’s seven attack errors were tied for the second-most in the freshman’s career. Travis’ only matches in 2026 with more attack errors were UW’s losses to then-No. 5 Stanford and then-No. 3 Kentucky. (She had 10 and eight errors, respectively, in those matches.)
“We were not great from the left pin out of system, and we were having a tough time scoring,” Sheffield said. “Washington was fantastic in that area of the game – out-of-system attacking – and we weren’t. … We’ve got to continue to expand our range. We’ve got to continue to expand our shot-making skills.”
Decelise Champion shines, but Washington’s star steals spotlight
Wisconsin star freshman Decelise Champion put together another outstanding performance, finishing with 20 kills while hitting .352. It tied her career-high and was the 17-year-old’s eighth match with 11 or more kills.
“Decelise was fantastic,” Sheffield said. “Playing with a lot of courage.”
Washington’s star pin-hitter was the one who truly captured the spotlight in the match, though.
Simona Mateska, a second-year player from Serbia, finished with 31 kills against the Badgers while hitting .424. She finished with the most kills by a Washington player in a single match since 2013 and the third-most kills by a Washington player in the 25-point rally scoring era.
It also tied the UW Field House record for kills by an opposing player in the 25-point rally scoring era. Baylor’s Yossiana Pressley also had 31 kills in a four-set match in 2019.
“I thought Mateska was clearly just the best player on the court tonight,” Sheffield said while Champion was sitting next to him. “Thirty-one kills, hitting .424 – that’s a monster night. We had a tough time slowing her down. Our block was pretty much nonexistent against her.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball's lapses add up in loss vs. Washington | 3 takeaways