The Wisconsin volleyball team (11-5, 5-3) will close the books on the first half of the conference season this weekend with road matches against Michigan State and Michigan. The Badgers are currently tied with Illinois for fourth in the Big Ten, behind the big three of Ohio State, Penn State and Minnesota.
In 2003, Michigan State (6-10) finished the conference schedule with an 11-9 mark. This season has been a different story, as the Spartans have stumbled to a 1-7 mark in the first half of the Big Ten season.
Head coach Chuck Erbe’s team has struggled to compensate for the graduation losses of middle Jenny Rood and setter Nikki Colson. State has also been forced to deal with the loss of middle Megan Wallin to a knee injury.
“That’s really altered things for them,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said of Wallin’s injury. “They’ve got a freshman setter who’s very, very good. They’ve got Kim Schram, who was an awesome player last year in the Big Ten. They’re always just a big team. People say we’re a tall team, but they’re even taller.”
Like Wisconsin, Michigan State has turned control of its offense over to a freshman setter. Maggie Griffin, a 6-foot rookie from St. Charles, Ill., runs the show in 2004 and is averaging 12.25 assists per game.
Leading the Spartan attack is senior outside hitter Kim Schram. An all-Big Ten pick in 2003, Schram is averaging 4.57 kills per game in her senior season. Fellow senior Michelle Kopka adds 2.59 kills per game from the outside. Without Wallin, the MSU block has struggled. No Spartan is averaging over 1.00 blocks per game thus far.
While its record is less than impressive, Michigan State certainly is more talented than the 1-7 mark suggests. In 2003, MSU won both meetings with UW.
“I am surprised,” Waite said of the Spartans’ record. “I think they may have lost some ball control, as far as their defensive specialists and libero from last year. I think that’s one thing they’ve been working on. I think they had a much better weekend (last week). Even though they lost at Ohio State and Penn State, they felt they really competed well.”
Saturday night, UW will head to Ann Arbor to meet the sixth-place Michigan Wolverines (14-5, 4-4). After finishing fifth in the conference a year ago, the Wolverines have reloaded with a talented freshman class, highlighted by outside hitter Katie Bruzdzinski. The 6-foot freshman is averaging 2.69 kills per game and brings a tough serve to the court (0.44 aces per game).
Bruzdzinski was a high school teammate of Wisconsin’s Taylor Reineke at Naperville North High School in Illinois. She also played on the same club team as Reineke and Jackie Simpson with Sports Performance Volleyball Club.
“They’re even better this year,” Waite said of the Wolverines. “They’ve got a new freshman, Bruzdzinski from Chicago, who played with Taylor and Jackie. She’s a great jump-server, outside attacker and defender. That in itself, with a fifth-year senior setter, has made them pretty darn solid this year.”
The Wolverines also have a pair of standout seniors in outside hitter Jennifer Gandolph and setter and Milwaukee-native Lisa Gamalski. Gandolph paces the squad with 3.26 kills per game, while Gamalski puts up 11.80 assists per game.
With the second half of the league schedule right around the corner, the road trip to Michigan looms large for the Badgers.
“These road games are huge for us,” Waite said. “If we can come out of there with two wins, it’s really going to help us in the Big Ten race and have us ready for the second half of the Big Ten.”
