The Wisconsin women’s volleyball team’s season officially ended last weekend with a loss to Texas A&M in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. As the players and coaches begin to absorb the loss, they realize that this season fell nothing short of a success.
The 2001 season brought many honors to the Badger squad. Aside from earning their second-straight Big Ten title (a feat no team has accomplished before), head coach Pete Waite was named Big Ten Coach of the Year by the media and garnered the AVCA Mideast Regional Coach of the Year for the second straight year.
Player-wise, senior setter Lizzy Fitzgerald was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and a first-team selection. Joining Fitzgerald on the first team was last year’s Player of the Year, senior middle blocker Sherisa Livingston. Livingston broke the UW record for kills, as she ended her career with 1,912, surpassing Amy Lee’s old record of 1,661. Both Fitzgerald and Livingston were named to the Mideast all-region team also. Junior outside hitter Erin Byrd earned honorable mention all-conference, and true freshman Jill Odenthal made the all-freshman team after stepping in for injured Lisa Zukowski early in the Big Ten season against Ohio State.
“The lowest point [of the season] was losing Lisa Zukowski,” said Waite.
Despite the individual honors, when the year began the coaches and the players had certain goals in mind. They wanted to make it through their tough non-conference schedule, win the Big Ten title outright and be playing their best volleyball at the start of tournament time.
Wisconsin accomplished all three of those preseason goals. They entered the Big Ten season with a 7-2 mark, with their lone losses coming at the hands of Pacific and Northern Iowa. While the momentum of beating then-No. 2 USC gave the Badgers confidence going into the rigorous conference stretch, the loss to Northern Iowa reminded the Badgers of what they needed to do in order to win.
“In ways the Northern Iowa loss effected us positively,” Waite said. “We went out with an even more aggressive attitude, and we were determined not to let it happen again.”
However, while the loss helped in some ways, it ended up coming back to haunt the Badgers.
“In another way it hurt us, because possibly in the final decision making by the NCAA it kept us from hosting regionals,” Waite said.
After the loss to Northern Iowa at home, the Badgers only lost one more match before tournament time. Wisconsin cruised through the Big Ten season with only one loss at the hands of Penn State on the road.
The 19-1 mark earned UW their second straight conference title and had them heading into the NCAA tournament ranked 6th in the nation and seeded second in Region 3. Wisconsin showed that they were playing their best ball of the season when they swept their first two tournament opponents, UW-Milwaukee and Michigan State, at the UW Field House. The Badgers made their second trip to the Sweet 16, which was as far as they would make it. While facing up with Texas A&M, the Badgers encountered a team that they were not used to–themselves. UW was swept for the first time this season, and the players and coaches agreed that while the Aggies played an excellent match, the Badgers did not play their best match.
“For some reason we were not playing very well at all and A&M was playing great,” Waite said. “Normally no matter how we start the match our team eventually gets going again and begins playing the way they want to be. For some reason though we were never able to get in sync.”
Fitzgerald echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“We really have no explanation for the loss,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s just too bad that we weren’t playing our best game in the Sweet 16.”
With the season now over, the Badgers are beginning to reflect on the year past. Wisconsin will lose four seniors in starters Fitzgerald, Livingston, Sara Urbanek and backup Marie Meyer.
“Obviously our seniors leave a huge mark on our program,” Waite said.
“Hopefully as seniors we left the impression of how hard you need to work,”
Fitzgerald said “Wisconsin has taught me a lot about myself as player and student.”
Fitzgerald went on to reflect on her last season as a UW athlete.
“If you look back at our season we only had four losses, and had a great record,” Fitzgerald said. “The loss to A&M was a disappointing end, but I would hate to forget everything we have done. We had a great season. It just ended a little shorter than we expected–but we will not let that overshadow everything we did.”
