Sept. 20, 2015

OMAHA, Neb. -- The 11th-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team endured its first five-set match of the season, but could not pull off the win, losing to Arkansas 21-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-13, 11-15 in the final round of the Creighton Classic on Saturday night at D.J. Sokol Arena.

Wisconsin finished the non-conference slate of its season with an 8-2 record.

"I liked our fight the last half of the match," UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "I told them that there were plenty of positives to take out of that match. What we talked about going in was that if this was all about the net play, then we weren't going to win this match. We had to out-serve them, we had to out-pass them, we had to out-defend them, and their passing numbers were better than ours."

The Badgers hit .293 (68 kills - 22 errors -157 total attempts), while Arkansas hit .270 (66-25-152).

Highlighting the night were junior Haleigh Nelson and freshman Tionna Williams, who each recorded a new career high with 18 and 16 kills, respectively.

"Haleigh, unfortunately, probably played her best match in a Badger jersey," Sheffield said. "Although that was in a loss, we tried to get her involved early and we kept going to her. I thought Tionna, in the second half of the match, that was the best she's played. We've really been challenging her and I think she just got tired of getting her butt kicked a little bit and started really, really driving and hitting the right shots, so I'm glad that she stepped up."

After upsetting Kansas State earlier in the day, the Razorbacks came out firing to grab a 17-11 lead in the first set. A 5-2 Badger run thanks to five kills then brought it to 19-16, but the dangerous Arkansas attack spoiled the Badger comeback.

Both teams battled throughout the second set, which saw 13 total ties. At 19-19, two kills by Nelson spurred a 3-0 run and forced an Arkansas timeout. A kill by redshirt junior Romana Kriskova brought set point, and an attack error tied the match at 1-1.

Arkansas raced to a 15-6 lead to start the third set. At 17-10, four straight Badger kills put Wisconsin within reach and forced a Razorback timeout. Led by Nelson, the Badgers put up a stronger fight to close the set, but four Arkansas kills in the final six points proved to be too costly.

Two straight service aces by Nelson put the Badgers up 8-4 to start the fourth set. With the match on the line, the Badgers ended the set with a dominant 8-1 run behind Williams' three kills.

Wisconsin came out confident in the final set following an impressive fourth set and notched four kills to grab a 5-3 lead, but an ensuing 5-0 Razorback run presented the Badgers with the ultimate challenge. After two attack errors extended the Razorback lead to 11-6, sophomore Kelli Bates and Williams both retaliated with a kill. Two more Williams kills and an additional kill by sophomore Lauryn Gillis kept the Badgers alive, but Wisconsin had no answer to the powerful Arkansas attacking duo of Chanell Clark-Bibbs and Breana Jones.

Gillis added 11 kills behind Nelson and Williams, followed by Kriskova with nine and Bates with eight. Junior Lauren Carlini recorded 56 assists.

Arkansas outblocked Wisconsin 12-8, while the Badgers outdug the Razorbacks 57-54.

Senior Taylor Morey led the Badgers on defense, notching a match-high 17 digs, followed by Carlini with 13 and Bates with nine. Nelson contributed five blocks.

The Badgers open Big Ten play on Wednesday, facing top-ranked and defending national champion Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania, at 6 p.m. CT.