Riding a five-match winning streak, the Wisconsin volleyball team (13-5, 7-3) enters the second half of the Big Ten schedule this weekend when Iowa and Minnesota come to town. In sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings, UW has situated itself within striking distance of Minnesota (9-1), Ohio State (9-1) and Penn State (8-2) at the top of the league leader board.
“We’re close, and this is where we wanted to position ourselves,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. “Being so young, if we could get right behind the top pack, we thought we’d have a good shot.”
The Badgers will open the weekend tonight against the struggling Hawkeyes (9-13, 1-9). After beating Michigan State 3-1 Sept. 25, Iowa has lost nine consecutive matches and has not won a game in their last five. That streak dates back to the 3-0 loss dealt by Wisconsin Oct. 9.
“As always, you can’t overlook Iowa,” Waite said. “They’re at the bottom of the conference. They’ve got a new coach in. They’re doing good things and they’re progressing, but obviously the one that we’ve got to look at more strongly is going to be the Minnesota match. But we’ll scout them both the same. We’ll put the same amount of time into both of them.”
Saturday night will be a crucial match for the Badgers, as they take on the No. 2 Golden Gophers, whose only conference loss came at the hands of the Buckeyes. The two sides first met Oct. 8, with Minnesota sweeping the match, 30-22, 30-26, 31-29. The match was much closer than the score indicated, as each of the three games was tied at 20-20 before the Gophers pulled away down the stretch. That showing, in addition to the way the Badgers have played since, gives the young Wisconsin team plenty of confidence heading into the rematch.
“I think our confidence comes from how we’ve progressed over the last three weeks,” junior left-side hitter Aubrey Meierotto said. “I think everybody’s improved in certain areas of the game. We’ve showed we’ve improved in things we wanted to do, like serving and defense. The fact we played right along with them in Minnesota definitely helps. I think we’re going to come out really tough and really confident in ourselves, just play our game and see how we’ve improved.”
Since that loss in Minnesota, UW has reeled off victories over Iowa, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan.
“I think just as an overall team they’ve matured well,” Waite said of his team. “We had such a young team to start off, they’ve made great leaps and bounds over the course of the last three weeks.”
The Gophers provide a different look offensively, with a 6-2 offense that features two setters in senior Lindsey Taatjes and sophomore Kelly Bowman. The hitting corps is led by senior outside hitters Erin Martin (5.06 kills per game) and Trisha Bratford (3.57 kills per game).
Wisconsin was able to hold the Martin-Bratford duo in check in the first meeting. Martin recorded 11 kills but hit just .105, and Bratford finished with seven kills and a .040 hitting percentage. The two seniors combined to hit just .079 in the match, so Minnesota did its damage in the middle with sophomore Meredith Nelson (six kills, .333 percentage) and on the right side with junior opposite hitter Jessica Byrnes (12 kills, .400 percentage).
“It’s tough when you have to commit a couple people to their top players and then some of the others come through with big games,” Waite said. “But I think, again, we’re better since we saw them last. It doesn’t mean we can contain their outside hitters the way we did, but hopefully we’ll keep them down a little bit and we’ll have more of an offensive outing ourselves.”
Waite hopes his fourth starting lineup of the season will have better luck this time around against the Gophers. The Badgers are 3-0 with the lineup of setter Jackie Simpson, middles Sheila Shaw and Taylor Reineke, outside hitters Meierotto and Maria Carlini and opposite Jill Odenthal joining libero Jo Wack.
