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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Badgers seek return to nonconference form

Despite a perfect home record in its nonconference play, the Wisconsin volleyball team has been unable to defend its home court in Big Ten play this season.

Most recently, Wisconsin fell to Ohio State at the Field House. The Badgers prevented a Buckeye sweep by taking the third set, but were unable to use the momentum in the fourth and lost 3-1. Wisconsin dropped its first conference home match to No. 1 Penn State just a day earlier. The Badgers were competitive in the first and second sets, losing 25-19 and 25-21 but scored just seven points in the third set, giving the Nittany Lions the sweep.

“Friday we played a pretty overpowering team,” head coach Pete Waite said. “They can put you on your heels sometimes and that lingered a little bit into Saturday I think.”

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Wisconsin has been struggling to achieve the consistency it had in its 12-1 nonconference performance earlier this year. In nearly all of the nonconference matches, the Badgers topped their opponents in kills, assists, blocks and digs. Wisconsin was also able to experiment with different rotations because a number of players could produce impressive statistics in any given match.

Junior Annemarie Hickey led the team in digs in all but one match while Courtney Thomas achieved the same consistency in assists. The kill leader, however, rotated between six players in those 13 games. Regardless of who the biggest offensive weapon was, the Badgers out-killed their opponent in every nonconference match.

“Our team chemistry and our mindsets were there,” Hickey said. “We were all on the same page and meshing really well together. Now that we are playing better teams it’s more stressful. I think that never giving up is key right now.”

As the level of competition has elevated, Wisconsin’s performance has not. Aside from the win over Northwestern, Wisconsin has yet to top a Big Ten team in kills and assists, a category the squad excelled at in the beginning of this season. Despite having Hickey, the second best defensive player in Big Ten, the Badgers have also been out-dug in conference play. Waite attributes this deficit to his team’s inability to hit hard for the duration of a long play, thus giving its opponents easier balls to save, which drives their dig statistics up.

“We have to sustain our high level of effort through long rallies,” Waite said. “I think over the weekend there were times when we would swing hard on the first time across the net and the second time and sometimes these rallies go three or four times across the net. If we can sustain that level, it will make a big difference.”

The only element of the game Wisconsin has maintained its numbers throughout the season in is blocking. The Badgers have yet to be out-blocked in a conference match despite the losses. Alexis Mitchell led the team with eight and six blocks in the matches against Ohio State and Penn State respectively, while Mary Ording had the most stuffs against Illinois and Northwestern with six and five, respectively.

Mitchell was up against top hitters in the country such as Ariel Scott, Deja McClendon and Nia Grant from Penn State but managed to stop six balls. The senior middle blocker has 22 stuffs on the season and averages 1.38 per set, which is good for 95th in the country.

Wisconsin has been unable to translate the individual accomplishments of Hickey and Mitchell into team wins, however.

“I think we need to work more collectively as a team,” Hickey said. “We have certain spots that we are doing well in now we just have to get all the aspects into that such as tougher serving or instead of taking one swing take a couple swings to put the ball away.”

In addition to a decreased level of play among individual team members, the Badgers have been unable to compete up to their standard for an entire match. Wisconsin appeared to threaten Penn State’s nearly perfect record in the first and second sets, losing by six in the first and just four in the second. However, the Badgers fell apart in the third set and lost 25-7. In the midst of a stretch of matches against ranked teams, Waite and the Badgers hope to capitalize on the elements of their game that have remained strong, as well as regain the level of play from the start of the season.

“If anything we should be more excited about the opportunity for a ranked win,” Waite said. “That can really help you in the long term play of the conference. We should be hungry to beat those teams.”

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