Women’s Volleyball: ‘A perfect ending’ Geneva native Grace Loberg, Wisconsin win national title

Wisconsin’s volleyball team though it had just won its first-ever women’s volleyball NCAA title.

Until the Badgers initially didn’t.

In the fifth set of the Dec. 18 NCAA finals in Columbus, Ohio, holding a 14-11 lead, Wisconsin and Nebraska volleyed back-and-forth before Nebraska outside hitter Madi Kubrick smacked an attack slightly over the outstretched hands of Wisconsin’s Dana Rettke and Sydney Hilley.

“We had won the point before and then [Nebraska] challenged the call,” Wisconsin five-year veteran and Geneva native Grace Loberg said of the thrilling match. “We celebrated for a good minute…girls had tears coming down. Then all of a sudden it was a challenge.”

Replays showed the ball was indeed touched, as the officials overturned the call, making it 14-12 Wisconsin, needing one more.

“It was kind of like the weirdest scenario; like ‘alright, we experienced the win and now we have to go back and play again,” Loberg said. “That last point, it lasted for a while. Nebraska had some amazing digs throughout the play. It was a perfect [storybook] ending for Sydney [Hilley] and Dana and a wide open net.”

Wisconsin, at last, wrapped up its historic NCAA championship with Rettke’s decisive kill.

It was a long road for Loberg and the Badgers. Loberg, who had 10 kills in the national championship match, earned her undergraduate degree last May, but returned for graduate school for educational leadership and policy.

Her eligibility was able to be maintained due to the NCAA allowing seniors affected during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season to return for an extra season.

“Once [that 2020 spring season] ended,” Loberg said, “and I realized how many of us seniors were coming back, knowing how good we could be and also the fact the senior was going to be normal…having a couple talks with my coach [Kelly Sheffield] it just became super clear that it was definitely the best decision to stay.”

Two years ago, the Badgers lost to Stanford in the NCAA championship match. During the 2020 COVID-19 season, the Badgers lost to Texas in the Final Four.

The mission for several women wasn’t yet complete.

“I think from day one, immediately, our goal was win a national championship,” Loberg said. “We knew we could get there. We knew we had all the pieces to get there. It was just going that extra step and winning the whole thing.”

Wisconsin only lost three matches all season and won 31 en route to a third consecutive Big Ten title, over Nebraska no less, who the Badgers ultimately beat three times in the season.

Of course, the vast support from Loberg’s hometown Geneva was hard to miss throughout it all.

“It’s so special,” Loberg said. “I love coming home to Geneva. I love all the people here. Just like everybody from the high school. The volleyball program was tweeting me, but I also was talking to Annie Seitelman, who was my coach. Receiving messages from all of them was so special.”

“In all my messages back, I was like: ‘I couldn’t had done it without all the support and guidance that everybody provided me from Geneva. It means a lot. I’m very lucky to be from here.”