The scenario is so eerily similar to Gregg and Marcia’s of the “Brady Bunch,” that creator Sherwood Schwartz might want to think about copyright infringement.
When outside hitter Lisa Zukowski of the UW volleyball team took her drivers test four years ago, her older brother finally had a chance to gloat–he had scored better on his test by three points.
“He hung it on the fridge for all to see,” Zukowski said.
The older Zukowski had waited nearly three years to have bragging rights, ever since his younger sister beat him at arm wrestling.
“I was in seventh grade when I beat him,” Zukowski said. “I could never beat him now because he’s buff, but he will never live it down.”
Zukowski has since moved on to bigger and better challenges. As a sophomore on the UW volleyball team, she has quickly become one of the Badgers’ top players. In only her second season she leads the team in service aces (10) and is second on the team in kills (123) and digs (82). Aside from that, she has a .287 hitting percentage.
These statistics are a far cry from her freshman year, when she managed 39 kills and 47 digs in only 53 games of action.
“Last year I didn’t play as much, but I did come off the bench,” Zukowski said. “I came into this season not knowing where I stood, but just knowing that I had to work really hard to be in [the starting role] if I wanted to be.”
With Zukowski in the starting lineup, new holes are opened up. Opposing coaches will not deny the fact that their game plan is to stop Badger All-American Sherisa Livingston. With the focus on Livingston, Zukowski has stepped up to the challenge of defending the Badgers’ Big Ten title.
“It’s fun for me because they are keying in on Sherisa,” Zukowski said. “I probably wasn’t a primary person to scout — it messes with opposing teams.”
Zukowski herself is not surprised about how she has been playing. In her four years of high school competition, Zukowski racked up honors that were made more for a trophy case than a refrigerator door. In her senior year, she was named to the Gator Circle of Champions, WVCA, and was the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Player of the Year. She was also named to the 1999 Volleyball Magazine All-American team. Her West Bend East team won the state championship in both her sophomore and senior seasons.
Outside of high school, Zukowski, along with current teammate and good friend Korie Gardner, led her club team, the Milwaukee Sting, to a second-place finish in the 2000 Junior Nationals.
After high school, where to play college volleyball was an easy choice for Zukowski. It had been a dream of hers to attend Wisconsin, and with her high academic standing and unprecedented athletic talent UW seemed a good fit for her.
“After a few years of playing volleyball, I knew that [I wanted to play at the college level],” Zukowski said. “Playing college volleyball and being a Badger have always been dreams of mine.”
Wisconsin also wanted Zukowski.
“We had been watching [Zukowski] all through her junior and senior years of high school and club volleyball,” UW head coach Pete Waite said. “She is a gutsy player that gets the most out of her body and her teammates. I really felt that out of her recruiting class she was the top player in Wisconsin.”
Even though volleyball is a yearlong commitment for Zukowski she has made sure that her creative side has been expressed as well. Currently pursuing an art degree, Zukowski takes every available opportunity to draw, create things, shop at retail stores, watch the HGTV channel, and, like teammate Erin Byrd, knit.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, Zukowski must begin to prepare to no longer be Wisconsin’s best-kept secret.
“I think she has surprised some people at how well she is doing at the net,” Waite said. “She has been scoring well, and her blocking has improved over the course of the season. Defensively she is becoming one of our best diggers and primary passers. Added into that is the surprise of her jump serve — she brings a lot of weapons to the court for us.”
Under her bio in the volleyball media guide, Zukowski’s answer to the question “Why Wisconsin?” was the simple statement: “It has the whole package.”
And if early indication of her talent means anything, Zukowski has the whole package too.
