After splitting its weekend road series last week — losing to Purdue and beating Indiana — the Badgers continued something that isn’t exactly a new trend for the 9-8 squad.
The win-loss pattern has been plaguing the Badgers all season. The team has not won three games in a row all year, and has only strung together two consecutive victories twice, with the last time coming against two ranked opponents, Michigan State and Michigan.
But while the Badgers have been able to compete with strong teams in the conference like the Spartans and Wolverines, their inability to string together multiple wins has hampered their chances to move up the ladder in the Big Ten.
Currently sitting at fifth place in the Big Ten, Wisconsin has not been anything short of a challenge for the top teams in the conference. But the team knows while it has been able to compete with strong opponents, playing more consistently could push the Badgers into the mix in a tough conference.
“A lot of people have been stepping up at different times, but all of us have never been on at the same time,” senior outside hitter Brittney Dolgner said. “We haven’t had a full force as a team. Once we have everybody stepping up together, I think we’ll be unstoppable.”
Aside from the lack of consistency from a team standpoint, also making things difficult for the Badgers is their tough schedule, which sends them to different locations each weekend, often traveling long distances with no day off between games. According to Allison Wack, that, along with the difficulty of playing in a hostile environment, can kill a team’s momentum.
“It’s for sure hard to play on the road, especially in the Big Ten,” Wack said. “All these schools have really good fan support. At home you can mess up a play, and they still cheer for you. Regardless of where we are, you have to treat the court like it’s your home court, and come in with the same attitude that we have at the Field House.”
According to Dolgner, while gaining momentum on the road is a tough task, she believes the team has the capability to do so. But in situations where the Badgers lose the first leg of a two game weekend series, Dolgner said it is difficult to return to where the team wants to be.
“If you play on a Friday-Saturday, it depends how you play. If you play well on Friday, it helps you prepare for Saturday. If you lose, you have to work a lot harder at getting that momentum going. It’s really nice [at home] because the fans help create that energy we need.”
Nevertheless, with the team still in the hunt for a finish at or near the top of the Big Ten, UW head coach Pete Waite feels that while the Badgers haven’t been able to formulate any notable winning streaks, it hasn’t been streaky on the negative side either. Just as the Badgers haven’t won more than two games in a row all year, they haven’t lost two in a row either.
“Really, a win-loss pattern is better than a loss after a loss,” Waite said. “Some teams will get in a funk where they lose one game after another, and this team has responded well. We take the opportunity to learn from our errors and the team has responded to come back with some really good wins.”
Regardless, while the players may not be able to concretely explain the team’s inconsistent play, the statistics do provide some answers. In games where the Badgers hit under .200, they are 2-7 and when they have fewer blocks than their opponent, they are only 3-8 on the year.
For Wack, staying consistent has been a challenge, but she admits the Badgers’ success and failures this year can be directly attributed to the team’s performance in each individual game.
“It’s not a coincidence; it’s what we’re doing,” she said. “The matches we’ve lost, other teams have played better and we haven’t played as well as our side and gotten sloppy. It’s within ourselves and things we can control. It would be great if we could continue that from match to match, but for now it’s something to work on.”
Now, with their next two games at the Field House, the Badgers have yet another chance to win three games in a row after beating Indiana last weekend. But as they have already discovered several times this year, it won’t be the easiest task. According to Dolgner, the home court advantage might be a big enough boost to finally propel the team to a winning streak.
“I think you kind of have to create your own energy when you’re on the road,” Dolgner said. “But when you’re in the Field House, it kind of creates the energy for you so you can just focus on playing. It’s always a big advantage to be playing at home.”
