When it rains, it pours.
That is exactly what happened last weekend for the Wisconsin women’s volleyball team. When the team headed to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes, it was a battle that pitted the top-ranked Badgers against the number-two team in the conference.
Although UW beat Ohio State to remain undefeated in Big Ten action, it lost starting outside hitter Lisa Zukowski to a season-ending knee injury in the first game. The next night against Penn State, the third-best team in the Big Ten, the Badgers lost their first conference match of the season.
“I thought we were going to make it undefeated through the Big Ten,” said senior Sherisa Livingston. “Obviously we didn’t know one of our starters was going to get hurt, but I still think we could have made it undefeated because we have great hitters coming off our bench.”
Fortunately for the Badgers, however, a silver lining did appear, and it came in the form of true freshman Jill Odenthal.
The outside hitter from Geneva, Ill., stepped up and was a huge presence for UW. The 6-0 left-hander jumped into the match against the Buckeyes to record a career-high 16 kills and a .467 hitting percentage. The next night, she tallied 14 kills. On the weekend, Odenthal averaged 3.33 kills, 1.33 digs, and 0.44 blocks per game, while hitting an impressive .343.
“I didn’t really shake me [to go in for Zukowski],” said Odenthal. “I was more excited than anything because Ohio State is a great team and I had been so excited just to be there. And then to get out on the court to help my team win was really exciting for me. It wasn’t intimidating or scary.”
Gone now are Zukowski’s 3.45 kills and 2.24 digs per game. Although those numbers are hard to replace, Odenthal brings a new presence and dimension to the Badger squad. Since Zukowski played on the left side, that is where Odenthal had to come in and play. But Odenthal is left-handed, and it is uncommon to see a left-handed hitter playing on the left side.
Now, instead of being able to attack a ball that is coming straight down, she instead will have to concentrate on hitting it from across her body. Odenthal’s ability to do so is to her advantage. It is harder for an opponent to determine where the ball will land, especially since Odenthal was not a main part of an opponent’s scouting report. She is now, however.
The loss of Zukowski and the emergence of Odenthal are fittingly the best examples of character that the Badgers have shown this season. It says a lot about a team when a star player can go down and true freshman can get up off the bench to take right over without missing a beat. UW’s depth is one of the key reasons that they have remained one of the top-ten teams in all of volleyball.
While the loss of a starter is a hard thing for any team to adjust to, the Badgers are positive they will come out of it okay.
“It does break you down a little bit [to see a starter go down,” said Livingston. “But you learn to move on for that player and for your team, because volleyball doesn’t stop because one player gets injured.”
A step down on the ladder: With the Badgers’ loss to Penn State last Saturday, they dropped from No. 5 in the rankings to No. 7. The victory for Penn State enabled them to move up two spots to number 11th. Ohio State maintained its spot at 10th, while Minnesota dropped three spots to No. 24 after being swept by Illinois. The sweep for Illinois propelled it into the top 25 as it rounded out the Big Ten schools in the national rankings. Atop the polls is Long Beach State, who has been resting on the top for the past five weeks.
The hard stuff is out of the way: UW will no longer need to worry about the top teams in the conference now that they have Ohio State and Penn State out of the picture. Wisconsin will be playing five of its last eight conference matches at home at the Field House. The Badgers have only lost one match this season at home and that was to Northern Iowa back in September. The toughest stretch left for UW will be when it heads to the state of Michigan to take on the Spartans and Wolverines.
