The Wisconsin Badgers move on to the second round of the NCAA Volleyball tournament in dominant fashion as they swept through Eastern Illinois. The first round sets were about as good as Wisconsin has been all season, with a 25-11 and 25-6 victories. The third set, Eastern Illinois found some mental toughness and battled to keep it close, 25-19. Yet, it was an impressive performance with Wisconsin winning in total 75-36.
They now head to the second round and will play tonight against the North Carolina Tar Heels for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16. The Tar Heels are coming off their own impressive performance, beating UTEP 3-1. The Miners were the favored team, but North Carolina absolutely stuffed UTEP at the net, over and over.
Kelly Sheffield previewed this ability by the Tar Heels and a little bit more when he talked about their next opponent after beating Eastern Illinois.
"We've got a really good North Carolina team up next. A program and a coaching staff we've got a lot of respect for. We've got our hands full. It's one of the better blocking and defensive teams in the country. I think they showed that tonight in the first match."Kelly Sheffield
North Carolina had an incredible 30 blocks against UTEP
Sheffield is not wrong. The Tar Heels had 30 blocks against UTEP, Jackie Taylor leading the way with nine, two other players had six, and a spattering of other players to bring the total up to 30. That's an incredible amount of blocks in any game, much less a tournament game. If you are unfamiliar with how impressive a 30-block match is, Wisconsin had eight against Eastern Illinois.
It's not just the blocks that stand out to Sheffield and volleyball pundits; their defensive ability is also amazing because they get a ton of digs. North Carolina had 44 digs in the UTEP match. That's an 11-digit per set rate for the team. That's not as incredible as the 30 blocks, but it is still a good amount of digs against a top team like UTEP.
Kelly Sheffield is right, Wisconsin should have its hands full and will need to be on top of its game to move on to the Sweet 16.
Wisconsin vs. North Carolina tonight at 7pm CT at the Kohl Center and airing live on ESPN+.