3 takeaways as Wisconsin volleyball defeats Auburn without Grace Egan

MADISON – Wisconsin volleyball did not always make it look easy, but the Badgers went 2-0 in the Big Ten/SEC Challenge.

Fewer than 24 hours after the five-set thriller against No. 17 Florida , the fifth-ranked Badgers defeated unranked Auburn , 25-23, 25-17, 25-20, on Sept. 3 at the UW Field House. The match had 17 ties and eight lead changes before UW prevailed in each set to improve its 2026 record to 3-3.

"We're playing a lot of really, really close sets, and things happen," Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said after the match. "There's a back-and-forth element to it, and we're growing. … I like where we're at. I like how we're learning."

Here are three takeaways from UW's latest win:

Wisconsin women's volleyball vs. Florida at the UW Field House

Audrey Flanagan, Eva Travis, Grace Lopez and Lynney Tarnow have all either led or shared the lead for kills in a match so far this season for the Badgers.

It was Halle Thompson's turn against Auburn.

The freshman outside hitter earned a spot in the starting lineup and led the Badgers with 11 kills. The last of those kills secured the third set. (It was easily a career-high for the freshman, whose previous career-high was four kills against then-No. 4 Pittsburgh.)

While Sheffield saw Thompson's trademark aggressiveness – "there's no set that she doesn't think she can get a kill on" – she also was "smart" in her attacking.

"Halle's like a double shot of espresso," Sheffield said. "I wanted to make sure that we weren't sleepy out there and the building wasn't sleepy. … The kid was pretty hyped, and that worked well attacking wise."

While her .200 hitting percentage will not necessarily jump off the page, her 30 total attacks were valuable in the latter part of the Badgers' back-to-back matches in the Big Ten/SEC Challenge.

"We needed her," Sheffield said. "We needed those swings. We needed her 30 swings. … The first two sets, she really set the tone with the areas of the court that she was attacking."

She was not the only outside hitter to stand out against Auburn, though. Travis had 10 kills while hitting .286 and earning praise from Sheffield afterward for her maturity and confidence after past attack errors. It was the UC-Santa Barbara transfer's third match with 10-plus kills so far in 2026.

The Badgers hit .305 as a whole, compared to Auburn's .196.

Why Wisconsin's blocking was better than stats might suggest

Auburn finished the match with a 5-4 advantage in total blocks, but Wisconsin left the UW Field House with a reason to be optimistic about its blocking. It goes back to one of the common threads Sheffield sees among good teams.

But Sheffield believes that "every really good team does something to stress out people." In Auburn's case, it was how quickly they set its left pin.

"It forces you to make choices defensively," Sheffield said. "So it kind of gets you out of your base defensive position, especially your block."

Wisconsin's blockers, Sheffield believes, "did a really good job" against the Tigers when considering the circumstances.

"I thought we set up in really good positions," Sheffield said. "We didn't get tooled. We didn't get used very much. … We were really disciplined with our hands."

The Badgers' success came with Natalie Wardlow and Lynney Tarnow starting at the middle blocker positions. Wardlow had eight kills, and Tarnow had seven kills. Wardlow had a much more involved role in the Auburn win than she did on Sept. 2 against Florida.

"My mindset is always like, 'How can I be good for the team and not getting so internal into myself,'" Wardlow said.

Wisconsin misses Jaela Auguste, Grace Egan in win over Auburn

Wisconsin's three-set sweep was despite the absences of two key players.

Jaela Auguste missed her fourth consecutive match with an injury. When asked earlier in the week whether it was a continuation of the abdominal strain that kept her out of the exhibition, Sheffield said "possibly" with a wink.

Grace Egan, meanwhile, did not play for the second time in a three-match stretch. Unlike her absence against then-No. 4 Pittsburgh – one that Sheffield later said was a "coach's decision" – Egan was not on the sidelines.

"She wasn't there," Sheffield said after the Auburn match. "Undisclosed injury, and we'll keep it at that."

Right-side hitter Grace Lopez, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, also did not play against the Tigers. She did appear in two sets against Florida as a serving specialist, subbing in for libero Anna Bardaro.

"It's not fun missing some people," Sheffield said. "You like to be at full strength, but that just doesn't happen. I don't know how football coaches do it. Every time that you go out and take the field, it's like the Revolutionary War or something like that. … We've had a few, and we've had to deal with it. But on the other side of that is opportunity."