With all the craziness in Madison this weekend due to Halloween festivities, it would have been extremely easy for the UW volleyball team to find itself distracted. However, the team remained focused and dominated Indiana Friday night and won an intense battle against Ohio State Saturday night.
Game one against Indiana started a little shakily for UW, as the team seemed anxious and jumpy. About halfway through the game the Badgers calmed down, and the tables turned as the Hoosiers seemed intimidated by the rowdy Field House crowd. The Badgers went on to post an impressive 30-21 win.
The next game proved to be more of a back-and-forth struggle. Middle blocker Amy Hultgren led the team with five kills as the Badgers went up 2-0 in the match, leading to a 30-24 win.
To end the match, game three found UW falling behind early on and using a somewhat different lineup to sneak out with a 30-28 win.
The most important play of the game occurred when the teams were tied at 25, when freshman middle blocker Sheila Shaw pounded a kill straight down the middle that caused such a deafening noise from the crowd that Indiana was forced to take a time out.
“I think that is just a great example of how the game can work,” setter Morgan Shields said. “You get a great dig so your setter can set, [and] I set the ball so my hitter can hit.”
This match was extremely different from the previous match against the Hoosiers, as the last time the Badgers faced the team in Bloomington the Badgers were beat in five games against a team that was not considered to be exceptionally strong.
“For some reason we came out against Indiana at their place really flat,” head coach Pete Waite said. “It’s nice to see that we’ve matured and grown a lot since that match.”
Saturday night featured a more competitive battle as Ohio State, a traditional Big Ten power, came to Madison with a full roster, with most of the team’s early season injuries had healed.
In the first game, the Badgers dominated the Buckeyes and posted an incredible 30-18 win. However, in the very next game, UW fell flat on its face as Ohio State dominated 30-22.
“This was a strange [match] — how in the first and second games, one team was great, one team was not playing well at all,” said Waite. “I don’t have any answers for that, and I don’t know why it happened to either team.”
UW then responded to its defeat by overpowering the Buckeyes 30-23 and shutting down Ohio State’s powerful outside hitter Stacey Gordon, who was last year’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
“Right from the start, our blockers really did a nice job setting up on [Stacey Gordon’s] line shots and taking it away,” Waite said. “She hammers it, but if you’re in the right spot, it’s going to go down fast.”
The Badgers knocked down a season-high 21 balls as Shaw led the team in blocks with 10, a career high for her. Lori Rittenhouse had eight blocks, while Hultgren and Shields each chipped in with seven blocks.
In the fourth and final game, UW never held the lead until its first opportunity for game point at 29-28. After two unsuccessful tries at ending the game and the match, the Badgers won 32-30.
“I think we’re getting on track now,” UW head coach Pete Waite said. “The team is just playing with more discipline. We’ve got people in the right positions, and if someone’s not on, we’ve got other people coming in doing a nice job. I think we’ve got a lot of weapons.”
