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After a second straight year of reaching the Final Four but coming home with no hardware, seniors on the Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team had a difficult decision to make. Due to COVID-19, they were eligible to return to Madison for one more year if they wanted to or they could turn pro and move on to the next stage of their lives.
In excellent news for the Badgers, Big Ten Setter of the Year Sydney Hilley and dynamic libero/defensive specialist Lauren Barnes are going to run it back and return to Madison for one more chance at winning the program’s first national title.
For those not on Instagram...@sydhil_ has something to say.
— Wisconsin Volleyball (@BadgerVB) May 4, 2021
(Spoiler: She's coming back) pic.twitter.com/OAG3Jq0mCS
Did you think we were done for the night?
— Wisconsin Volleyball (@BadgerVB) May 4, 2021
One more piece of good news for you tonight...and maybe some more tomorrow.@laurenbarnes_2 WANTS MORE! pic.twitter.com/mp9ii2bqVu
The volleyball Twitter account also teased that there would be another player announcement on Tuesday and that it would be some more good news, so that is exciting.
Senior outside hitter, and one of the emotional leaders of the team, Molly Haggerty has decided to go pro and we are pumped to see where she ends up.
As for the rest of the senior class, decisions for Gio Civita, Deahna Kraft, Dana Rettke, Grace Loberg and Nicole Shanahan (UPDATE: as pointed out in the comments, Shanahan is transferring to Tennessee for her final year) have yet to be made public but we will update this post if any news breaks. One might imagine Civita and Kraft, who were grad transfers to Wisconsin this season, may move on but who can say for sure.