After a long and, at times, trying four-game home stand to start conference play, the Wisconsin Badgers (11-4, 0-4) will hit the road looking for a fresh start.
Wisconsin will do battle with both conference schools in Michigan this weekend, taking on Michigan (14-2, 3-1) and Michigan State (9-6, 1-3) on consecutive nights.
Although the team has played road games this year at UW-Milwaukee in a tournament and at Northern Illinois for a pre-conference match, a conference road game presents a unique challenge.
“It’s just being comfortable in another gym, because all the gyms in the Big Ten are different,” sophomore middle blocker Alexis Mitchell said. “We’re used to playing in front of big crowds, so I don’t think that affects us as much, but being in a new gym, things are different. So we just have to deal with that.”
Along with unique challenges, being on the road can sometimes be a nice change of pace. However, considering the team’s 0-4 conference start at home, the road seems like a favorable alternative.
“One of the challenges is the energy the crowd might give the other team, but honestly, I think when teams go on the road it’s an ability to focus even better because you don’t have the distractions of leaving classes early or the family that is coming to the game,” head coach Pete Waite said. “So often road games are great.”
And, in case you were wondering, no Badger player on the roster is from the state of Michigan.
Waite has urged his players to ignore the crowd and focus on playing.
“I don’t known specifically what taunts they’re gonna get, but we’ve played road this year already. Northern Illinois was a great example of a loud crowd, a very energetic student section, and our players handled it very well,” Waite said. “They just need to put the blinders on, look at the game on the court and play ball.”
The Badgers will welcome back a fully healthy Mitchell, who had been fighting a nagging ankle injury for weeks. The sophomore continued her solid play while fighting the injury, but is seemingly back to full strength.
“I’ve been doing a lot of rehab and strengthening exercises, and in practice today I could definitely tell that my ankle is fine, it doesn’t bother me at all,” Mitchell said. “As long as I stay healthy and keep working on it, I should be good the rest of the season.”
With Mitchell regaining her explosiveness and trampoline-infused jumping ability, the team will look to utilize the quick set to the middle more. The quick set to Mitchell, which demands precise passing, has achieved much success and remains a vital weapon to setter Janelle Gabrielsen.
“My jumping ability has helped me see the block and see the court,” Mitchell said. “Even if the blockers are up there, normally I can see around them and score that way. We’re gonna get back to that and hopefully this weekend it works out really well for us.”
Despite enduring losses to two top-ten teams and two top-25 teams in conference play, the team can take moral victories from competing with each of those teams.
“We didn’t play our best and we were still two to three points with a lot of those teams,” senior outside hitter Allison Wack said. “So those are matches we definitely could’ve won if we were firing on all cylinders. I think the fact that we’re a young team is good because they’re all excited to get out there and keep playing.”
The team looks to capitalize this weekend on the road, while simultaneously pushing those moral victories toward future success.
“Everyone’s still fired up and ready to start fresh this weekend,” Wack said.
