Anytime a team has some of its key players dancing to the band during a timeout, it is obvious the team is having no problems whatsoever with its opponents. This was exactly the case this weekend, as the UW volleyball team began its NCAA tournament title run Friday at the Field House.
It was clear Friday night that the Badgers were simply the superior team in all aspects of the game. The strength of the Big Ten conference prepared the Badgers (23-9) for their crushing 30-17, 30-13, 30-15 victory over Alabama A&M (24-7).
UW started out strong in game one behind the powerful serving of setter Morgan Shields, who tallied an ace on her first serve. As the game proceeded it was obvious A&M was not able to handle the power of UW’s serves and the floaters the team continued to utilize.
With the Badgers consistently leading by 10 points, the Bulldogs seemed slow and confused and were often unable to put up a block against the powerful Badger hits.
Jill Odenthal led UW in game one with five kills; A&M was only able to muster up nine total kills. The Badgers tallied a hitting percentage of .379 compared to the Bulldog percentage of .148.
“She (Odenthal) was banging the ball early,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. “She was hitting all kinds of shots; she was hitting shots cross-court, down the line — just all different things. The hitting starts with the passing, comes to the setter and gets everyone in rhythm.”
Game two highlighted a lineup change, something not uncommon for the Badgers, with the addition of Marian Weidner at outside hitter for Lori Rittenhouse, who had been nursing an injured ankle.
Senior captain Erin Byrd led the Badgers in this game with an impressive six kills. This game saw the Badgers put down .522 percent of their hits, as the Bulldogs, who had numerous players in negative hitting percentage, only registered a .042 hitting percentage.
The players attributed much of their success to the lack of blocking by the A&M players.
“These are fun matches to play in when Morgan is able to set hitters and they have no block; I mean, Odie could just crush balls,” Byrd said.
Sheila Shaw and Odenthal added to this theory by explaining when they go up for a shot they often have to adjust in the air to a block, but Friday they were just able to “bang away.”
The final game of the match followed the same script as the previous two games with UW’s strong serving and dominant hitting and blocking denying A&M much of a chance to ignite a comeback.
“I think we just stayed at the same level we wanted to play at, and I know Alabama is not used to this level, and we talked about that before they came,” Waite said. “It is a very different conference, so to play against players that are so much bigger and with the ball moving so much faster it is pretty tough for them.”
Odenthal ended the match with a team-high 12 kills as libero Lisa Zukowski led the team with nine kills.
While the total number of kills for each team was fairly close, the Badgers were statistically dominant with 43 kills while the Bulldogs had 23 kills. It was the same story with team hitting percentages, as the Badgers boasted a gaudy .418 in comparison to the Bulldogs .014 hitting percentage.
“We knew going into the match that size was going to be a problem for us,” Alabama A&M head coach Betty Austin said. “But to be very honest with you, their height did affect us with regard to serve receive and basically took us out of our rhythm in regard to reception, and I think everything broke down right then.”
