Wisconsin senior outside hitter Kelli Bates has recorded 1,063 kills and 1,339 digs in her Wisconsin career, making her one of a small company of elite active players who have achieved both benchmarks.
Kelli Bates is good at very many things on the volleyball court. But, alas, nobody can be good at everything, and Wisconsin volleyball discovered one of Bates’ few weaknesses last week: finding gummy worms hidden under mountains of whipped cream.
In honor of Thanksgiving, the Wisconsin women’s volleyball team split into three teams of 4 players each with a challenge: each member of the team, in order, had to dive face first into a ‘whipped cream pie’ (read: paper plate covered in whipped cream) that had a single gummy worm buried into it. No hands. Once the worm was in their mouth, the next player could go.
Surprisingly, the team of Tiffany Clark, Bates, Sarah Dodd, and Lauryn Gillis – who I’d take against almost anyone in a 4-on-4 volleyball contest – struggled (in spite of a strong anchor leg from Gillis). Bates especially had a hard time, and on several occasions it wasn’t clear that she would make it out alive.
It was team 3, with Amber MacDonald, Tionna Williams, M.E. Dodge, and Dana Rettke who crushed the competition, finishing in just 35 seconds. Team 3 took 2nd thanks to plenty of positive encouragement from freshman Riley Bell.
Wisconsin went 1-1 on the weekend, losing to Penn State 3-1 before dominating Rutgers 3-0 on senior night.
Final Times, and watch the chaos in the video below:
- Team 3 – Amber MacDonald, Tionna Williams, M.E. Dodge, and Dana Rettke (35 seconds)
- Team 1 – Riley Bell, Nicole Shanahan, Grace Loberg, Molly Haggerty (53 seconds)
- Team 2 – Tiffany Clark, Kelli Bates, Sarah Dodd, and Lauryn Gillis (1 minute, 24 seconds)
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