The UW volleyball team opened up Big Ten play last weekend and came out with two hard-fought victories. The Badgers’ record now stands at 10-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference. UW earned victories over Northwestern Friday night and over Illinois Saturday night.
Against the Wildcats, the Badgers slipped early but recovered to win the match. It was a repeat of the two teams’ meeting last year. Early errors prompted head coach Pete Waite to tinker with his lineup in an effort to motivate his team.
“Those first two games were some of the worst volleyball I have seen the team play in a long time and it was surprising because we had been practicing well all week,” said coach Pete Waite. “We were trying to be aggressive with our serves and we could not find the court, as big as it was.”
The Badgers headed into the locker room after the second game with improvements to make. The third game began with a line-up change that proved to be crucial for the Badgers. Lisa Zukowski switched from the libero position in the first two games to an outside hitter thereafter.
Moving Zukowski to an attacking position was just the spark the Badgers needed going into the third game.
“We knew that if we were playing poorly we might change the lineup and Zukowski came through and gave us a lot of energy and it proved to be the change we needed,” Waite said.
Zukowski came out in the third game and added six kills and two blocks in the 30-25 victory.
Zukowski showed why she is a captain by providing a total of 14 defensive digs along with nine kills.
“Zukowski [was] very aggressive hitting and in the first two games [but] we couldn’t find our rhythm and we made the lineup change,” sophomore Aubrey Meierotto said.
Badgers started the third game with the notion of going back to the basics and controlling the things they are able to control — serving.
“We started to get into a rhythm in the third game and started to concentrate on our serving by making them [Northwestern] play the ball,” Zukowski said.
Meierotto added to the Badgers’ momentum with a total of 24 kills and six blocks.
Zukowski finished off the Wildcats in the fifth game, coming up with a huge block against the Wildcat middle hitter Julie Purcell to end the match 15-12.
The Badgers faced a similar situation Saturday night with the Fighting Illini. Zukowski was positioned as the libero at the start of the match. After losing the first game, Waite decided to switch Zukowski to an outside hitter and made Jill Maier the libero.
“We came out in game one with the lineup that we wanted, even though we had a tough start [against] Northwestern and the chemistry and speed still wasn’t there, so we made the change in game two and we really turned it around,” Waite said. “A lot goes out to Zukowski, who has been changing roles back and forth. Once again she came through for the team in a big way.”
The Illini featured a tall lineup, as eight of their 15 players were over six feet tall, but the Badger lineup change neutralized 6-foot-5 Lisaa Argabright, who was kept to 17 kills. New libero Jill Maier kept the Illini hitters frustrated all match by contributing 19 defensive digs.
Once again Zukowski gave the Badgers the edge they needed by adding a total of 14 kills and 15 defensive digs. Jill Odenthal contributed 22 kills and a career high of six service aces. The Badgers took the Fighting Illini in a 3-1 victory, 28-30, 30-27, 30-22, and 30-23.
The Badgers found the right rhythm and the right lineup they needed to come up with two victories and a solid start to the Big Ten season.
