3 takeaways as Penn State overpowers Wisconsin volleyball in five sets

MADISON – For as many big wins as Wisconsin volleyball‘s youthful 2026 roster has pulled off, the Badgers (and their nine freshmen) met their match against a more experienced Penn State group.

The seventh-ranked Badgers fell to No. 11 Penn State in five sets, 25-20, 18-25, 25-20, 19-25, 11-15, on Nov. 8 at the UW Field House. The Nittany Lions‘ upperclassmen had 54 kills against Wisconsin, which were three fewer than what the Badgers’ entire roster had.

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“That was a tough loss for us,” Wisconsin setter Charlie Fuerbringer said. “I know we wanted to win that bad. But I was really proud of how we battled and stuck together through the good times and the bad times.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

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Wisconsin can’t stop Penn State star Kennedy Martin’s onslaught

Penn State kept going to Kennedy Martin with its attack, and Wisconsin did not have any answers.

Martin – a first-team All-American in each of the last two seasons – finished with 28 kills, coming up three short of tying the UW Field House record for an opposing player. She did so while taking 64 of Penn State’s 163 swings and hitting .328.

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“Errors don’t affect her,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “They certainly don’t seem to affect her. She makes really good decisions. She can work the court. She doesn’t get blocked very much. She has great vision of seeing what is in front of her, and she’s a handful.”

Wisconsin had its hands full trying to stop her from the beginning. She had nine kills in the first set and another six in the second set. Wisconsin’s win in the third set coincided with Martin’s one less-than-stellar set, as she had only two kills with one error on 11 swings.

The Badgers join a long list of teams that have struggled to slow down Martin. The 6-foot-6 senior right-side hitter has now recorded at least 20 kills in five of her last seven matches. Even before the UW match, her 4.58 kills per set led the Big Ten.

“She’s been an aircraft carrier for the teams that she’s been on, and she doesn’t flinch,” Sheffield said.

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Martin’s constant threat opened up opportunities for others. Whitney Lauenstein had 15 kills, Kendall Northern had nine kills, Gabrielle Nichols had eight kills and Emmi Sellman had seven kills. Northern, Nichols and Stucky each hit .375 or better.

Penn State’s serves keep Wisconsin out of system

Penn State’s serves posed a major challenge for Wisconsin. It was most obvious when the Nittany Lions aced the Badgers on three consecutive points in the fourth set. It was while outside hitters Audrey Flanagan and Eva Travis were with libero Anna Bardaro in the back row.

Sheffield called a timeout after the second ace, only for Martin to ace the Badgers for a third time – more than against any other ranked opponent this season. Sheffield then subbed Grace Egan into the back row before the service run finally ended.

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“Our outsides had a tough time handling their serves, no doubt,” Sheffield said. “It stressed our patterns. They’ve got some servers that can really get at it. But yeah, there was some times we got broken down a little bit.”

Those aces turned Wisconsin’s 7-5 deficit into a more glaring 10-5 deficit in the fourth set. The Badgers later cut it to 20-18 before the Nittany Lions went on a 5-1 run to finish off the set (and take the momentum ahead of the fifth set).

Penn State had two other aces in the match, but that hardly scratches the surface of the serving impact. Good serves – ace or otherwise – helped the Nittany Lions go on 5-0 and 4-0 runs in the second set, a 4-0 run in the third set and a 6-1 run in the fifth set.

The Badgers sided out only 54%, 45% and 53% of the time, respectively, in the second, fourth and fifth sets – the three that they lost. Penn State, on the other hand, sided out 73%, 60% and 72% of the time in those three sets.

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“When we were out of system, we couldn’t execute,” Fuerbringer said. “We weren’t sticking with the play as well as they were. … When they would be out of system, they would go up and all of their players would be covering maybe once or twice more than what we were doing.”

Decelise Champion overcomes slow start

After committing a season-high 12 attack errors against Michigan State, Decelise Champion struggled early against Penn State as well.

Champion had only one kill versus three attack errors in the first set, resulting in a minus-.400 hitting percentage. It was a noticeable contrast from her team-high average of 3.8 kills per set in 2026.

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The 17-year-old opposite hitter also had relatively quiet second, fourth and fifth sets, picking up a combined eight kills versus five attack errors.

But she was a key part of the Badgers’ win in the third set. Champion had 10 kills on 13 total attacks without any errors in the set. She delivered four of those kills during the Badgers’ 7-2 run to finish off the set.

Champion ultimately finished with 19 kills and eight attack errors while hitting .220. She took 50 of UW’s 135 swings.

“It was definitely challenging,” Champion said. “I felt like these past two matches, I’ve had a slow start in my attacking and how I’m approaching the court. … Overall, it was a really big challenge for the team and for everyone. So like Charlie said, we’re going to learn a lot from this.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 takeaways as Penn State overpowers Wisconsin volleyball in five sets

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