In their final tune up of the spring season, the Wisconsin volleyball team defeated its former teammates 25-20, 20-25, 25-15, 25-22, 12-15 in the annual alumnae game.
In total, nine alumnae came back for the event, including all five seniors from last year’s squad with Taylor Reineke, Jackie Simpson, Amanda Berkley and Megan Mills playing and Jocelyn Wack coaching. Amy Bladow (2006), Maria Carlini (2006), Morgan Shields, (2003) and Jill Odenthal (2004) made up the rest the alumnae team.
“First of all, it was really fun to see the alumnae out there again, and they had a great time,” head coach Pete Waite said. “Their team was pretty skilled, which was good for us. They played a great game. There was a lot variety out there. They bring the energy. It was just good to see them back on the court.
“For our players, it’s really motivation for them to look at tape tomorrow to see what they want to work on going into the summer to get better in certain areas,” Waite said. “I think it will motivate them to be even better.”
Outside hitter Brittney Dolgner led Wisconsin with 17 kills and 11 digs. Caity DuPont also enjoyed a good night with 15 kills, seven digs and two service aces.
“I thought Caity did really well,” Waite said. “She was banging the ball on the outside. She was doing real well. She’s got that in her all the time. I thought her jump serve was good tonight and she made some defensive plays that I think she was working on real hard this spring.”
For the alumnae, Carlini led the team with 17 kills. Shields was the only other player in double figures with 11. Wisconsin ended the night with a 68-55 advantage in kills over the alumnae.
While UW was able to get its kills, they did not come easy as the team hit at a .226 clip for the match. Because the alumnae know the team so well, Waite believes it provided a good challenge for his team.
“You could just see the alumni taking away some of the shots of our current players that they know they liked to hit all the time,” Waite said. “That’s our challenge is to change those shots and to move the ball around a little bit more.”
It was Nikki Klingsporn, who will replace Simpson in the fall as the starting setter, whose job it was to spread the ball around to try and get her teammates clean shots. Klingsporn finished the match with 54 assists and also added 12 digs, three kills and a service ace. Simpson had 30 assists for the alumnae team.
“I thought [Klingsporn] ran a really solid offense,” former Badger setter Simpson said. “She has a lot of options, a lot of hitters, and I think she really used them to the best of her abilities and knows when to give them the ball. That’s really cool to see.”
Now as the Badgers head into their summer workouts, Dolgner believes they are a much better team than the one that traveled to San Diego to begin the spring season.
“I think we improved a lot as a team because we lost five great players,” Dolgner said. “Coming in with five new people, working them in was really good. I think the beach helped a lot too, just playing with different people and seeing the court differently too.”
And while Wisconsin will have a tough task figuring out how to replace those five seniors, Simpson believes the sky is the limit for next year’s team.
“I’m really excited about this group,” Simpson said. “They are such hard workers, and playing with all of them for so long, I know that only good things can come from them because they are just going to outwork teams.”
