In its final warm-up before the Big Ten season, the No. 16 Wisconsin volleyball team dominated a less-than-stellar field this past weekend at the Badger Invitational. While not losing their focus, the Badgers won their home invite, defeating all three of their opponents in straight games.
Opening the tournament Friday night against a Bowling Green (5-6) team that was clearly overmatched, the Badgers won 30-10, 30-18, 30-23. Bowling Green opened the match with an abundance of errors and key service aces down the stretch by Erin Byrd, Morgan Shields and Lisa Zukowski that sealed the deal for the Badgers.
The biggest surprise of the match was the outstanding play of freshman Lauren Ford, who broke the Wisconsin three-game hitting percentage record, converting on 14 of 16 (.875 percent) attacks as the Badgers cruised to an easy victory.
“It feels good,” Ford said about tying a record in her first home start. “I didn’t really notice during the match.”
The Badgers’ next match was Saturday afternoon against the Green Wave of Tulane (7-8).
“We’re going into [the] match the same way we went into tonight’s,” head coach Pete Waite said.
“It’s our team that needs to play at its highest level, and they need to play to us. If they can keep up with us it’s going to be a match.”
Against Tulane the Badgers maintained more consistent play than the night before, and in just one hour and 10 minutes the team emerged from the match with a 30-23, 30-22, 30-17 victory. Setter Morgan Shields averaged 14 assists per game and Lisa Zukowski led the team with 14 kills.
The Badgers came into their final match of the tournament against the University of Illinois-Chicago (11-4) with the chance to complete the tournament sweep. Although the team came out of the gates a little flat and was clearly outplayed by UIC, the Badgers gained momentum in each game after breaks in play allowed them to refocus.
“I thought that match was a good way to finish off the weekend,” Waite said. “One of our goals was to win our home tournament.”
While Erin Byrd had 16 kills and Amy Hultgren recorded five blocks, the Badgers received a huge defensive spark in the second game from junior Korie Gardner.
“She (Gardner) made some nice digs and really solidified things for us,” Waite said.
“She’s a great player, and we want to find a use for her out on the court.”
Although the Badgers appeared to play down somewhat to the ability of their opponents with sloppy play and hitting errors against UIC, the team believes they can step it up at any time.
“I think once other teams step up, we’ll step up,” Hultgren said.
“We don’t usually like to play to the level of our opponent, but usually we’ll raise our level if they raise theirs.”
Three Badgers received all-tournament honors after the team dominated its own tournament. Seniors Erin Byrd and Amy Hultgren were named to the All-Tournament team and outside hitter Lisa Zukowski was named tournament MVP.
“I thought Zukowski did a nice job,” Waite said. “Not just with her hitting and attacking, but her passing was excellent this weekend and the energy that she gave the team was fantastic.”
The Badgers open their Big Ten season next weekend as they go on the road for two tough matches against Purdue and Illinois. The Badgers will hit the road hoping to defend their 2001 conference championship and improve upon their 9-2 season record.
