[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Heading into the final stretch of the Big Ten season, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team was looking to gain some ground in the conference race this past weekend.

Locked into a tie for third place with Purdue, Wisconsin did its part by defeating both Michigan and Michigan State on the road, and then received some help to move up in the Big Ten standings.

Purdue lost both of its matches this past weekend, while Minnesota fell to Michigan, catapulting Wisconsin into second place.

The only problem: Penn State still holds a strong two-match lead, and time is running out for the Badgers to catch the Nittany Lions.

"Somebody's got to catch Penn State," UW head coach Pete Waite said at a Monday press conference. "They do go to Ohio State coming up here, so there's a shot there, but after that it's going to be tough."

But Penn State isn't the only team Wisconsin is concerned with right now. At 11-3 in conference play, Minnesota is currently tied with Wisconsin for second place.

After sweeping Wisconsin at home, the Golden Gophers hold the tiebreaker over the Badgers if the season would end today. Fortunately for Waite's squad, it does not, and Minnesota still has to play one more match at the Field House, where UW has been seemingly unbeatable.

And though they lost their home opener to then-No. 8 Texas in the AVCA Volleyball Showcase, Wisconsin has not lost a game at home this year.

"It's not just that we're getting the wins at home, the level we're playing [at] is something that's just been unbelievable," Waite said. "The fans have been great, the numbers have been great, but the team has been so focused at home. It's enjoyable as [a] coach to see because you can pretty much sit back, because they've pretty much been on automatic."

Nevertheless, the Badgers still must be conscious of the teams behind them, such as eighth-place Illinois and fifth-place Northwestern — teams Wisconsin is hosting at home this weekend.

"Both of those teams are teams that are on the bubble right now for the NCAA tournament," Waite said. "They're right at that spot where I know they are fighting to get a big win to jump them up in the ranking and the RPI, and we know we don't want to be that team."

While Wisconsin has always played much better at home, part of the reason for the team's stellar play as of late has been the boost of sweeping then-No. 2 Penn State two weekends ago.

"Once our players finished that weekend, they've been practicing at a higher level," Waite said. "Their confidence and just their focus is even better than what it was before … they're just catching fire and playing at a really high level that they haven't played at in years."

Another reason has been simply getting healthy.

Senior floor captain and outside hitter Maria Carlini appears to be fully healthy now, following a foot injury that hampered her for the beginning of the Big Ten season while sophomore outside hitter Audra Jeffers' back continues to get stronger from the aches and pains of wearing a back brace to heal stress and hairline fractures. Also, senior middle blocker Amy Bladow has been dealing with a couple minor bumps and bruises.

"With the three starters that have been out, they really weren't practicing about half of each week," Waite said. "It was hard to have any chemistry … [Getting healthy] was a big part of it."

Long-awaited Waite

Waite, already UW's most winning coach with 195 wins and a .764 winning percentage, needs five more victories to reach the 200-win plateau as a Badger. He currently has 461 wins in his career, which includes 11 seasons at Northern Illinois, and he ranks 13th among active Division I head coaches in winning percentage.