MADISON, Wis. – No. 4 Wisconsin proved why it's a national contender, defeating Colgate 3-0 on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament. 

Colgate's season comes to an end but not before the Raiders put on quite the showing in front of a sellout crowd of 7,000-plus at the UW Field House. 

The Raiders (18-10, 13-3 PL) more than proved they belong, hanging tough with the Big Ten champions. Wisconsin (26-3, 17-3 Big Ten) was just too much late in the sets to prevail 25-12, 25-15, and 25-14.  
 
Alli Lowe shined on the brightest stage, finishing two kills shy of the match high with 12. Libby Overmyer and Sophie Thompson each had two blocks and Julia Kurowski posted 23 assists. Taylor Cigna led the Raiders defensively with 11 digs.
 
Set 1: Wisconsin 25, Colgate 12
Colgate held early leads on kills by Overmyer and Athena Leota. It was 5-4 Raiders after another deep kill from Lowe but Wisconsin turned the tide with a 6-2 run. A Badgers service error closed the gap to 10-8, but Wisconsin went on to score the next nine points and ran away with the 25-12 final.

Set 2: Wisconsin 25, Colgate 15
The Raiders were in an early hole and never recovered in the second set. Wisconsin jumped out to a four-point lead and built it up to 12-4 before a kill by Overmyer ended the run. It was an eight-point margin for most of the set and two attack errors finished things off for the Badgers in the 25-15 score.
 
Set 3: Wisconsin 25, Colgate 14
The final set had a slower back-and-forth start, with a kill by Leota closing Colgate's gap to 4-3. It was a close 12-7 score after another kil from Lowe, but the Badgers capitalized on the attack errors from Colgate's side to build a 20-10 advantage. The margin remained at 10 and a kill by Julia Orzol finished things off with Wisconsin advancing on the 25-14 final score.

FROM THE SOURCES
Head Coach Ryan Baker
 
"I'm so proud of this group. This is a match I won't forget and I'm going to walk out with a smile. Our program is just going up, up, up. We are 35-5 in the Patriot League in the last three seasons and I think the best is yet to come for this program. Wisconsin is one of the top teams in the country and it showed tonight but we deserved to be here and I think we proved that."
 
Senior Alli Lowe
 
"We introduced ourselves, we made a name for ourselves, and we have a chance to do it again next year. It's still exciting to get the experience this year but we'll come back even hungrier next year."
 
Senior Julia Kurowski
 
"We just had to take this all in. This is a surreal feeling and I've dreamt of this moment. Being present was important and taking this all in. It is a special feeling to be here and we know we'll be back again."