MADISON — Marquette volleyball said hello to the Kohl Center when it won the first set.
It promptly said goodbye when it lost the next three.
In their first-ever trip to the 17,000-seat arena, the Golden Eagles (3-4) left with a 3-1 defeat (25-22, 20-25, 16-25, 22-25) to the No. 7 Badgers Tuesday night.
Marquette and Wisconsin were neck-and-neck at the start of the match, and the Golden Eagles ended the first set with three-straight kills from three different people.
It was all coming together for the underdogs from Milwaukee.
Kill-machine Aubrey Hamilton had six to her name, the defense posted 27 digs and — most importantly — senior outside hitter and reigning national player of the year Sarah Franklin was limited to just five kills.
That didn’t last for long, though, as Franklin would go on to finish with a career-high 33 kills on a .517 hitting percentage.
Once Franklin got going in the second set (she finished the frame with 14 kills, hitting .483) there was no stopping her — or the rest of the Badgers.
In the third frame, Marquette held a 14-12 lead over Wisconsin in what was shaping up to be a nail-biting finish. The Badgers had other plans — scoring 10 straight points to take a 22-14 advantage.
Despite calling a timeout when Wisconsin had scored six-straight points, and again when the Badgers extended that number to a 9-0 run, the Golden Eagles could not stop the avalanche of points.
Wisconsin closed the frame, 25-16, on a 3-0 streak, which stemmed from two kills and a Marquette attack error from Natalie Ring.
The Golden Eagles hit an abysmal .029 in the frame while the Badgers hit .419.
While the final set was close, the Franklin train had already left the station and she killed the match dead, 25-22.
Marquette was led by 12 kills from Carsen Murray, and Hamilton was right behind with 10. Yadhira Anchante posted a double-double with 39 assists and 14 digs. The Golden Eagles hit .233 as a team.
Other than Franklin, Anna Smrek and Julia Orzol were the other two Badgers with double-digit kills (15 and 10 respectively). Orzol also had 16 digs, marking a double-double.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.