[media-credit name=’MATTHEW KUTZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After a successful home opener this past weekend in which the UW volleyball team swept Villanova, Valparaiso and No. 11 UCLA, the Badgers are set to begin conference play this weekend.

Wisconsin opens the Big Ten season with matches against No. 5 Minnesota Friday at 7 p.m. and Iowa Sunday at 1 p.m.

The No. 10 Badgers have gotten off to a hot start this season as they currently stand at 8-1, but really got a big confidence booster by upsetting UCLA which was ranked two spots higher than them at the time.

Defeating a team of UCLA's caliber was a good indication of what Wisconsin can expect going into the Big Ten season as the conference currently boasts five teams in the top 25.

"Our kids are confident enough to go against anybody in the top 10 right now and have a shot at them," head coach Pete Waite said. "So that was a great start for us and it really prepared us for this weekend now because we're facing a tougher Minnesota team."

"It will be really good going into the Big Ten weekend with this much confidence and with our crowd behind us, too," senior co-captain Sheila Shaw added. "It's awesome to open Big Tens at home."

In past years, the Big Ten has been one of the better volleyball conferences in the nation and this year will be no different.

Aside from the aforementioned Gophers, Penn State is No.4, Ohio State fell to No. 16 following a loss to BYU, and Purdue jumped from being previously unranked to No. 19 this week.

However, every game in the Big Ten should have the expectation of being a hard-fought battle.

"I think it's going to be very competitive," senior co-captain Aubrey Meierotto said. "Every night is going to be a really hard game. Every team in the Big Ten is a really good team so it's going to be a fight."

If five teams in the top 25 aren't an obvious enough hint as to just how tough conference play will be this year, the Big Ten is the only conference out of the six major conferences in the nation to have every team with a record of at least .500 in non-conference play so far in 2005.

While Minnesota will give Waite and his squad a glimpse at what it will take to beat one of the best teams in the nation, the Badgers beat this same Gopher team that made a Final Four appearance last season.

However, Minnesota has a very balanced scoring attack with eight players averaging more than 2.0 kills per game, so honing in on stopping one player won't be a very efficient strategy.

Instead, Waite will be focusing on disrupting the Gophers' defensive game with his big spikers on the net.

"The best player on their team is their defensive player, their libero, Paula Gentil. She is a two-time All-American already and she just gets everything defensively and makes you change what you're doing offensively," Waite said. "If we can have more weapons, frustrate her a little bit, it'll be better for us.

"They're confident because they're coming off another Final Four appearance," he continued. "The one thing we have in our favor is that we're at home and we beat them here last year. Our kids are confident they have a good shot at them this year."

As for Iowa, the Hawkeyes have scampered out to a 9-3 start so far this season. Led by three freshmen starters in outside hitter Catherine Smale, libero Emily Hiza, and setter Kelly Fister, the young Hawkeyes will attempt to make an impact in the Big Ten, as last year they finished with a mere two conference wins.

Wisconsin certainly won't take Iowa lightly in their second game of the weekend.

"Coming into any match, you can never take any team for granted," sophomore setter Jackie Simpson said. "We play in a conference where every night you're going as hard as you can and we respect any team that comes into our gym or any gym that we go into. We have to really respect every team equally."