Anne Strong, Volleyball Writer

This weekend’s matches will mark the halfway point in the Big Ten schedule for the Wisconsin volleyball team. This weekend the Badgers look to take first place in the conference but must knock off two tough teams. The Badgers (6-2, 14-5 overall) will host the Penn State Nittany Lions (6-2, 17-3) Friday night and the Buckeyes of Ohio State (2-6, 8-8) Saturday night.

“We are going into the second half of Big Ten play and it is a neck-and-neck race for first place. It is going to be a knockout fight until the bitter end to be the Big Ten champ,” senior Morgan Shields said.

The Badgers are coming off two well-fought victories versus Indiana and Purdue last weekend. The momentum from those wins was carried into practice this week and will prove to be critical against the Nittany Lions.

“Everybody on the team knows how significant this match is and all week practice has been intense to get ready for the upcoming games,” Shields said. “We have been playing hard all week and bringing the same kind of motivation to practice that we would to a game. If you train hard all week at practice then when it comes time to play, everything is easier.”

Currently there is a three-way tie for first place in the conference and a victory over the Nittany Lions will move the Badgers to the top of the standings.

“We know Penn State is a great team and we hope to come out with a lot of fire and energy,” Shields said. “We are going to use everything we have learned from previous losses and put up a really good fight versus a strong team.”

Last weekend the Nittany Lions fell to Minnesota in three games, taking them out of their solo first place standing.

Penn States poses a threat in the front row with tall, strong hitters. Senior hitter Erin Iceman, senior middle hitter Cara Smith, and junior Ashley Pederson are the dominant hitters for the Nittany Lions. Pederson put down 18 kills against the Gophers and Iceman added nine.

The Buckeyes have had a rough first half of conference play, but parity has been affluent. The Buckeyes are led by junior All-American selection Stacey Gordon who records 6.35 kills per game and leads the Buckeyes in digs at 3.38 per game.

The Badgers need to stay focused on the fundamentals but also know they need to start with a high level of energy and make big plays that will keep their energy above the opponents.

“Everything this weekend has to be really stable and disciplined. Besides fundamentals and skill a victory is going to come from internal competitiveness and motivation. We need to stay strong the whole match,” Shields said.