[media-credit name=’Derek Charles Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Friday night’s victory over Virginia marked a milestone in the highly-successful career of Wisconsin volleyball coach Pete Waite. The 3-0 sweep gave Waite win No. 400 as a head coach. More importantly to Waite though, it gave Wisconsin its fourth win of the young season.

“Every win is great,” Waite said. “It just so happens that 400 came tonight. I was really pleased with the way we played, and that’s the most important thing we’ve been saying to this team all season. We wanted consistency and we wanted some great defense. They really played well together.”

In his 16-plus years of collegiate coaching, Waite now owns a career record of 402-140. He has a mark of 136-38 at Wisconsin. The Badgers have yet to miss the NCAA tournament in his tenure and have twice captured the Big Ten championship. In 2000, Waite led UW to the NCAA championship match.

While Waite would have preferred to have picked up No. 400 with a 3-0 performance at last weekend’s Jayhawk Invitational, he was happy to have reached the milestone in front of the home crowd at the Field House.

“It’s really great,” Waite said. “The fans here are so supportive — through all the years. A lot of the players have family here and some have come from as far as New Orleans and Colorado this weekend to watch the team play. It’s great to be here in front of the fans.”

In 2004, Waite has a very youthful Badger squad off to a 6-2 start. Three freshmen were on the court for win No. 400.

“Most of them were maybe one or two years old when I started college coaching,” Waite said with a laugh. “It’s great. They’re doing great things, they’re playing like veterans and that’s really enjoyable to watch.”

They meet again: Wisconsin’s Sheila Shaw saw a familiar face on the other side of the net in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Cincinnati: former high school teammate and Conference USA Player of the Year Julie DuPont.

Shaw and DuPont played alongside each other at Muskego High School, where DuPont earned first-team all-state honors as a senior.

“It’s really awesome just to play someone in college that you had the chance to play with in high school,” Shaw said. “It’s always fun.”

In 2003, DuPont averaged 5.43 kills per game for the Bearcats and set a school record with 624 kills. She was named a third-team All-American by the AVCA.

“Julie DuPont’s a very competitive person, very aggressive,” Waite said. “She’s done great in Conference USA.”

In the end, Shaw owned all bragging rights in the reunion. Not only did the Badgers finish the InnTowner Invitational 3-0, but Shaw was named tournament MVP after racking up 40 kills in three matches. Furthermore, Wisconsin held DuPont to a negative hitting percentage in a three-game sweep of Cincinnati.