The first news to break after Kelly Sheffield's "BINGO" social media post (a sign a new Badger has committed) was that Wisconsin added outside hitter Eva Travis from UC-Santa Barbara. It was a surprising pickup considering the Badgers have a ton of outside hitters already. It was like Sheffield was trying to collect them all.
However, news quickly broke after that one of Wisconsin's starting outside hitters is deciding to move on and jump into the portal. Una Vajagic, a redshirt sophomore this season, is looking for a new home somewhere else, and Sheffield's addition of Travis made a lot more sense.
It's hard to fathom why Vajagic decided to transfer, considering she was almost certainly going to compete for and maybe even be assured of a starting outside hitter position. She was a starter this season alongside All-American Mimi Colyer. Now that Colyer has graduated and is headed to the pro league, Vajagic would get to fill her shoes.
Una Vajagic has decided to step away from her starter role at Wisconsin and transfer
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Maybe she wasn't guaranteed that spot, and that has pushed her to look around. Sheffield is bringing in two elite true freshmen outside hitters in Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan. There's also Madison Quest already on the roster that could compete for the spot. You can also assume that with Grace Lopez coming back from injury by next season, Grace Egan would be in line to move back to the pin position.
There's a chance all that shuffling led Vajagic to decide that a for-sure starting position would be better for her than competing for a spot that will now have talent running deep into the bench.
As for Travis, she was a star at UCSB and is coming in as a junior, and was the former 2024 Big West Freshman of the Year. She's got the potential to also compete for the position or add a very valuable veteran depth piece for Sheffield at outside hitter. It will continue to be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
For now, Sheffield has to go back into the portal to find more. A backup libero and another setter would be ideal.