Wisconsin's shows off its young talent, plus more from the volleyball exhibition win over Notre Dame

MADISON – Wisconsin volleyball had an opportunity to tinker with some lineups and test a young team in its Aug. 17 exhibition match against Notre Dame.

“All four sets, we were different,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I think personnel in sets one and two were the same, but we flipped our middles and we flipped our outsides. … Some teams that you have, when you’re making those types of changes, when you’re just flipping them on the wheel ... there becomes an uneasiness about it. These guys were no problems whatsoever. … That’s something I learned from this group today is that we can move the chess pieces around a little bit.”

The Badgers’ result, aside from being unfazed, was a 3-1 exhibition win over the Fighting Irish (25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 25-20). Here are some takeaways from the Aug. 17 exhibition along with the Badgers’ intra-team scrimmage on Aug. 16:

Young talent on display with 2025 Wisconsin volleyball team

On a team with many young players who could contribute in 2025, Sheffield was “really happy” with what he saw from his young players in the exhibition win.

“I thought the story of the match was our young kids,” Sheffield said. “It’s kind of what we’ve been seeing in practice is there’s not much fear out of them.”

In a position battle at libero between freshmen Kristen Simon and Aniya Warren, each player started two sets and were, in Sheffield's opinion, “really, really good.” Simon had three service aces and a team-high 17 digs; Warren had one service ace, one service error and 12 digs.

Madison Quest – one of the incoming freshmen competing for the Badgers’ starting right-side hitter spot – started three of the four sets and had six block assists, which were tied for the most on the team with Carter Booth.

“She’s learning to block a new side of the pin,” Sheffield said of Quest, “and defending the quick and the go set. I thought she did a really good job with that.”

Natalie Wardlow – also a freshman and a candidate at the right side – played the fourth set and had four kills. They were tough kills, too, in Sheffield’s opinion.

“A couple really, really nice out-of-system swings on both pins,” Sheffield said. “A couple balls that I’m not really sure how she was able to score off of them because they were really, really tough balls that she had to handle.”

Wardlow had some impressive stretches in the intra-team scrimmage as well, picking up five kills in the first set alone. She then had three kills in the second set and one kill in the third set and finished the afternoon hitting .333.

Grace Egan shines throughout weekend at UW Field House

Ohio State transfer Grace Egan made a strong first impression on Badger fans at the Field House over the weekend.

Her 13 kills led the Badgers in the four-set win over the Fighting Irish. Her sixth kill of the first set – as many as Mimi Colyer and Carter Booth had combined at that point – sealed the Badgers’ set win.

It was not her only impressive performance of the weekend. During the team’s scrimmage Aug. 16, Egan had a team-high 15 kills with three errors on 30 total attacks. That included seven kills with only one attack error in the first set.

“She’s such a dynamic player,” Sheffield said. “Her athleticism is just off the charts, and she’s a really, really exciting player obviously. … She’s going to be a big part of what we’re trying to do this year.”

Sheffield still sees room for improvement from Egan, though, after sitting in the third set and coming back in for the fourth set.

“She lost a little bit of concentration, I would say, there when she came back in and started the fourth set,” Sheffield said. “I think she’s kind of a rhythm player. I was really interested to see what that was going to look like after she kind of takes a set off. She’s got to get better in that, but she’s a handful. She’s constantly a handful.”

Notre Dame competes above its (lack of) preseason ranking

Notre Dame – a team that did not get any votes in the AVCA preseason coaches poll – was even more competitive with the eighth-ranked Badgers than the 3-1 outcome might suggest.

The first set was a narrow 25-23 win for UW with 12 ties and three lead changes. Notre Dame had 5-2, 7-4 and 20-17 leads in the second set before the Badgers eventually captured a lead with a 5-0 scoring run.

The Fighting Irish then took the third set as the Badgers hit a match-low .022. Even in the fourth set, there were five ties before the Badgers broke away for a match-clinching 25-20 win.

Notre Dame, Sheffield said, has “gotten a lot better than what they’ve been in a while.”

“That’s as physical of a team that Notre Dame has probably had since 1997,” Sheffield said. “They’ve got some arms. They put some pressure on us behind the service line. They didn’t get aced very much. Thought they did a great job covering.”

No Charlie Fuerbringer, but another setter fills in admirably

UW setter Charlie Fuerbringer, a 2024 third-team All-American, did not participate in the Aug. 16 scrimmage or Aug. 17 exhibition.

Sheffield was coy about details of the injury – “she was in sweats today, stayed on the sideline for the match and didn’t get in at all,” he said with a wink – but he is hopeful that she will return in time for the Aug. 29 season opener against No. 14 Kansas.

“There’s an urgency about how you’re playing and how you’re improving and how you’re competing,” Sheffield said. “There’s also an understanding that this is a long season as well. So I don’t think anybody’s going to be making decisions that doesn’t put us in the best position to be as good as what we can be at the end of the year.”

Addy Horner, a freshman, started in her place in each of the first four sets and “made some really good decisions and really nice plays.” She had 44 of the team’s 50 assists and three kills.

“You saw a setter tonight that doesn’t flinch,” Sheffield said. “There’s a lot of things to learn, but she did a really, really nice job today. So we’re well taken care of in that department.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin vs Notre Dame volleyball exhibition match: Four takeaways