B5Q Blogopean Union: still thinking about the volleyball win from Sunday night

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Nebraska).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow (which we NO LONGER DO).

• Bud makes a pretty good point...I wouldn’t want to fight Wisconsin neither.

• This is completely true and every Wisconsin RB from now until forever should continue loving playing Nebraska.

• The women’s soccer team lost a heart-breaker in the Sweet 16 to Santa Clara on Sunday, 2-1. The Broncos scored early to take a 1-0 lead but then Santa Clara received a red card and the Badgers took advantage of being up a player to notch the game-tying goal, courtesy of Emma Jaskaniec.

Unfortunately, the Broncos scored off of a corner kick with just under 10 minutes to play and Wisconsin couldn’t muster one more comeback. While this surely isn’t a “good” ending to the season for UW’s seniors, hopefully they look back on this season’s run fondly once there is some space from the end of the match.

Wisconsin’s No. 1 priority will be finding a replacement for all-conference goalie Jordyn Bloomer next season. She leaves large gloves to fill in Madison.

• The women’s hockey team scored 12 goals over the weekend in their sweep of St. Thomas while only giving up two (one each game) and, quite frankly, it wasn’t even that close. UW is now 15-0-1 on the season and has next weekend off before welcoming Border Battle rivals Minnesota to LaBahn Arena on the first weekend of December.
• Former Badger Hilary Knight scored the game-winner, her second of the game, to help Team USA beat Canada and win their first Rivalry Series/My Why Tour contest.

• You could say the volleyball team was excited after their five-set win over Minnesota on Sunday night.

• The men’s hockey team was swept by Michigan State and, well, there isn’t much more to say about that.
• The Badgers are back home to take on Chicago State Monday night and are looking to bounce back from a rough loss to Bradley over the weekend. We’ll have a recap of the games later, but things were not great in the Bradley game and it is extremely clear how much work this team has to do.

• East coast Badgers have a fun chance to see the ranked wrestling squad this coming weekend.

• The men’s cross country team finished No. 11 in the whole dang country and Olin Hacker earned All-American honors. Northern Arizona won the national title for the fifth time in six seasons, which is really quite impressive.

The women’s team finished No. 12 in the nation while the NC State Wolfpack took home their first even women’s national title in distance running.

• Big Ten Preseason Men’s Hoops Player of the Year Kofi Cockburn is set to make his season debut on Monday.
• Michigan State and Mel Tucker, fresh off a giant new contract extension, got obliterated by Ohio State on Saturday.
• Lol, speaking of MSU...they open as underdogs to Penn State.
• How does Dane Belton unlock Iowa’s defense and make it a good unit?
• Report card from Corn Nation after another loss to Wisconsin.
• I don’t want to alarm anyone, but No. 6 Purdue men’s hoops is really good. They took down No. 5 Villanova on Sunday.
• Northwestern won the field hockey national title, beating Liberty 2-0.
• Preseason Final Four contender Michigan men’s basketball is off to a rough start this year. They lost to Arizona on Sunday, their second loss of the young season, and have a lot of things to work on before conference play starts.
• Rutgers women’s soccer moves on to the Elite 8.
• No. 3 Maryland women’s hoops beat No. 6 Baylor on Sunday and the Terps are the CLEAR favorite to win the Big Ten again.