Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Badgers working on new techniques

There’s an old sentiment in the sporting world that states the more experienced teams often perform the best. Don’t tell that to the Wisconsin volleyball team.

After having practiced as a team for just a short time this spring, sophomore Kirby Toon was pleased with her team’s 25-23, 25-17, 25-21 victory Saturday over UW-Milwaukee.

“We’ve only been practicing for about a week, so it’s looking pretty good,” Toon said. “We have a very young team with a lot of new players coming in.”

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The Badgers’ roster features many underclassmen and includes only three seniors.

Head coach Pete Waite was also impressed by his young team’s performance. He highlighted a few keys to the win that they had practiced during the preceding week.

“I thought our serve receive was pretty solid,” Waite said. “That’s something we’ve been working on during our individual workouts and team workouts.”

The Badgers were aced just three times and committed only four receiving errors in total.

Senior Allison Wack, who led the team with 17 kills in the match, agreed her team’s improved serve receiving was an integral part of their success.

“We are just seeing better serve receive than last year,” Wack said. “Overall I think it was great. We’re working on a whole lot of new things and new techniques.”

Waite explained some of the new ideas he and his staff have already started to implement.

“We had Kirby Toon and Al Wack jump-serving with topspin, which was new for them. They did a nice job,” Waite said. “That always puts the opponent on their heels a little bit.”

The new serving technique did seem to throw the Panthers off, allowing the Badgers to pick up several easy points throughout the match. Wisconsin recorded 11 aces, including two by Toon and four by Wack.

UW-Milwaukee, however, also presented some unique challenges for the Badgers. The Panthers play in a slightly different way than Waite and his team is accustomed to seeing.

“Milwaukee runs a very fast offense so they’re flying all over the place and they’re tough to keep up with,” Waite said. “As a bigger team from the Big Ten, we played a smaller team from the Horizon League that’s a great ball handling team and I think our ball handling stood up with theirs; it’s not an easy thing to do because every conference recruits in a different way.”

Although the Badgers stood up to most of the challenges that Milwaukee presented, Waite and his players know there is still much to be learned.

Waite specifically addressed the team’s struggles with maintaining a high hit percentage. The Badgers struggled in that statistical category, hitting only .141. In 2009, Wisconsin finished with a .172 percentage for the season.

“Our hitting percentage needs to be better; we need to bring that up,” Waite said. “After a week of team training, that’s a really good reminder to us of what [we] need to focus on even more.”

The Badgers are hoping they can improve in all areas this spring while also gaining valuable experience for the more trying fall season.

“Our goal isn’t necessarily [about] the wins and the losses,” Toon said. “It’s to go out and improve every time we play.”

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