After hosting its own tournament last week, the Wisconsin volleyball team will play in the Oregon State Invitational this weekend.
During their own InnTowner Invitational — which took place at the Field House last weekend — the Badgers went 1-2, sweeping South Dakota, but losing to Duke and Ohio. While the outcome of the tournament was less than ideal, head coach Pete Waite saw improvement throughout the course of the weekend.
“I was really pleased with their mental toughness and desire on the court,” Waite said. “I think the people in the stands saw a real improvement and saw that they really were fighting for every point.”
Now, the Badgers will head to Oregon State to take on Seattle, Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State. Last year, UW swept Cal State Fullerton at the UNLV Classic at the beginning of the season. However, the Badgers lost to Oregon State in the Marquette Cheese Bowl last season. The loss still lingers in some players’ minds.
“I think it’s in some of the returning players’ minds,” sophomore setter Janelle Gabrielsen said. “We would really like to beat them on their home turf. I think if we keep playing like we have been in practice, and we play as a team, then we’ll have a good shot.”
For senior outside hitter Brittney Dolgner, though, playing Oregon State means matching up with one of the Pac-10’s top outside hitters, Rachel Rourke. In last year’s match, Rourke overpowered the Badgers, which Dolgner credits to much of the Beavers’ success.
“I take it personally because their left side was just killing us,” Dolgner said. “I really just want to get in there and stuff [Rourke] a few times. I just think that if we shut her down, we’ll shut their whole team down.”
But with those strong words aside, Dolgner noted that practice has been focusing mostly on defense over the past week, which was one of the Badgers’ weaker points during the tournament last weekend.
“We’ve mostly been focusing on blocking,” Dolgner said. “We got beat a lot on the block last weekend so that was one of our main focuses.”
“I think they’re really going to bring it to us again,” she continued. “Oregon [State] beat us with a couple good hitters last year, and I think we’ve been working on defending them all week.”
But while the Badgers are confident in their attempt to upset Oregon State on its home court, they will have to face a Beavers squad with five returning starters.
Wisconsin, on the other hand, has eight new players who have not yet been fully acclimated to the college game. Nevertheless, Dolgner has seen the team improve immensely over the past week, and she feels that the team’s improvement, coupled with a win in the upcoming tournament, would be a huge step for the Badgers.
“A win would definitely be great, and just the steps we’ve taken to get to where we are is really great,” Dolgner said. “A lot of people can’t tell the difference between the freshmen and the seniors, and that just shows how much we’ve improved.”
Going on the road for the first time this season, the Badgers will enter an environment other than the friendly confines of the Field House. While that may be a daunting task to the younger players on the team, according to Waite, many times a team’s goal can be much stronger on the road when entering a more hostile atmosphere.
