With three weeks left until the NCAA Tournament, the UW volleyball team is in a great position to return to the national championship game — and this time they don’t intend on taking second.
The Badgers are 19-3 overall and 13-1 in the Big Ten, with two of their losses coming at the hands of ranked opponents. UW is first in the Big Ten, and currently ranks sixth in the nation.
Long Beach State (20-0) continues its hold on first in the nation on the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 Coaches poll for the sixth consecutive week. The 49ers have battled 2000 National Champion Nebraska for first on the poll all year.
The Huskers are currently second with a 21-1 record.
Stanford (21-2) remains at third this week, with Arizona (16-3) at fourth, and USC (17-2) at fifth.
The seedings for the 2001 NCAA Volleyball Tournament will be released Nov. 26. The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball committee will select the 64-team bracket, and the top 16 seeded teams will host first- and second-round action from Nov. 30 to Dec.2.
The top four seeded teams will host the regional tournament from Dec. 4–6, and the 2001 NCAA Championship will be held Dec.13 and 15 at the Cox Arena at the Aztec Bowl in San Diego.
The UW volleyball team has only six conference games left for the rest of the regular season, with none of the upcoming matches coming against ranked opponents.
The team is looking to repeat as Big Ten champions and make it back to the NCAA Championship.
Statistical Leaders: Wisconsin is first in the Big Ten in kills, averaging 17.4 per game. This statistic is largely due to the outstanding performance of UW’s all-time kill leader Sherisa Livingston. She is second in the Big Ten in kills, averaging 4.97 per game, and is third in the conference with a .400 hitting percentage.
UW is also first in the conference in assists, averaging 15.38 per game. This statistic is largely due to the performance of another senior leader on the Badger squad — all-American setter Lizzy Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald has the most recorded assists in the Big Ten with 1,075, averaging 13.78 per game (second in the conference).
The Badgers are also the statistical leader of the conference for digs, averaging 15.26 per game. Erin Byrd is fourth in the Big Ten in this category with 2.92 digs per game.
With the combination of a strong back row getting the digs, a consistently outstanding performance by Fitzgerald, and the unstoppable front line (including Livingston and Byrd), Wisconsin has continued to prove why they are the Big Ten’s elite team.
Communication Key: With many new players coming in and out of the lineup, the UW volleyball team has worked on maintaining good communication on the court.
Junior MB Amy Hultgren is one of the players who are consistently in and out of the fast-paced UW lineup.
As a transfer to the program this year, Hultgren has caught on to the Badgers’ communication and performance style quickly. She mentioned that communication is a very important area, which a new player to the team would have to learn quickly, and learn to perfection.
“We try to limit our communication down to just a few words here and there,” Hultgren said. “People are really starting to pick up on what exactly those terms mean — there is a lot more helpful phrasing going on [during the game] on the court.”
With the regular season winding down and the NCAA Tournament in their sights, the UW volleyball team will no doubt perfect their communication for all players on the team.
After losing starter Lisa Zukowski to a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago, the importance of the whole team — not just the starters — knowing the game plan inside and out has become even more evident.