After a frustrating weekend, the Wisconsin volleyball team (6-4) will look to quickly right the ship in a midweek road match with Northwestern. After losing the first two conference matches of the season to Ohio State and Penn State, UW is eager to put those memories behind it and get back on the court, rather than stew in the gym for a week.
“Right now I feel it’s a good thing to be hitting the floor again and getting out there,” head coach Pete Waite said. “We’ve made some adjustments in the way players are positioned on the court. We’re altering some of the things we’re doing in practice, trying to focus on our defense and ball control and adjust our intensity. We’ll find out Wednesday, but I think it’s a good thing to get out early and go to Northwestern.”
Coming off the disappointing weekend, Waite was pleased with the effort and intensity he saw in the team’s first practice of the week.
“They weren’t down, they weren’t upset,” Waite said. “They worked hard — they always work hard for us, so it’s just a matter of our staff structuring things.”
Due to the Wednesday match, UW will have just two days of practice before returning to action against the Wildcats.
Offensively, the Badgers will look to senior Jill Odenthal, who is fresh off a solid weekend. The senior opposite hitter owns a team-best hitting percentage of .305 and is averaging 2.97 kills per game. Junior middle Sheila Shaw leads the team in kills per game at 3.75, emerging as one of the Badgers’ primary options in the attack.
Wisconsin’s travel partner, Northwestern (5-7) also comes into the meeting with a 0-2 Big Ten record thanks to home losses at the hands of Ohio State and Penn State. As a result, both teams will be looking to earn their first conference victory of the season.
“Northwestern’s a pretty good team, too,” Waite said. “They have a lot of freshmen on the court, just like we do. They’ve struggled at times and they’ve played some good ball at times. In the last two years, they’ve played great against us down there. We need to step it up and get down there and beat them on their home court.”
Leading the Wildcat offense thus far is sophomore middle blocker Julie Purcell. The 6-foot-1 Purcell is averaging 3.42 kills per game through 12 matches. Providing support is a pair of freshmen: 6-foot outside hitter Courtnie Paulus and 6-foot-3 middle blocker Brittney Aldridge. Paulus, who hails from Belgium, Wis., adds 3.24 kills per game to the NU attack, while Aldridge paces the team in hitting percentage at .241. The frontline also gets a boost from the return of senior middle Leah Delcourt, who is working her way back from a preseason finger injury.
Setting for those hitters is senior Drew Robertson. The 5-foot-10 setter averages 10.35 assists per game for head coach Keylor Chan’s team. Defensively, the Wildcats are anchored by junior libero Christie Gardner’s 4.22 digs per game.
In 2003, the two teams split the season series, with each school winning on its home court. Wisconsin won 3-2 in Madison Sept. 26, while Northwestern was victorious in Evanston Nov. 14 by the score of 3-1. The Badgers have not won in Welsh Arena since 2001, but lead the all-time series 14-10 in Evanston.
Wisconsin has not started a conference schedule 0-3 since 1985, when the Badgers dropped their first four Big Ten matches.
