The Wisconsin women’s volleyball has completed quite the turnaround from a season ago.
The team finished with a lackluster 11-18 record, the most losses since 1986, and that marked just the second time head coach Pete Waite had ever coached a team with a losing record.
However, so far this year, the team has sung quite a different tune.
After winning three different tournaments so far, the team’s perfect record remains intact at 9-0.
The Badgers will test that perfect record tomorrow as they travel to Dekalb, Ill. to take on another undefeated team in the 11-0 Northern Illinois Huskies.
Wisconsin’s hot start, which is tied for the third best in school history excites coach Waite but doesn’t necessarily suggest to him that his team has special potential quite yet.
“Yeah we’re undefeated, but it was a lighter schedule because we knew we would be a young team,” Waite said. There are definitely good signs compared to the last two years, we’re playing at a higher level and there’s no doubt about that.”
Despite only employing three seniors, the team welcomes the services of five new freshmen who are all making their impact in different ways.
Freshman Julie Mikaelsen, however, is dealing with a much harder transition than most freshman are forced to endure.
Mikaelsen, a native of Norway, is not only trying to adjust to playing a collegiate sport, but also to a new language and a new country.
“It’s hard in different ways, but at the same time the team makes it easier because I always have someone to be with,” Mikaelsen said. “I would be all by myself, but now I have a team that always backs me up, and I feel like the English is coming.”
One thing Mikaelsen needs no adjustment to, however, is her hitting game. She led the team with 13 kills last weekend against Central Michigan and remains one of team’s top attacking options.
Early on, one of the strengths for UW has surfaced on the outsides. The Badgers pounded the ball last weekend at the Milwaukee invitational, outhitting their opponents by 43 in the three matches.
Sustaining the energy level throughout each game remains a slight problem for the team, especially for a young team facing it’s first true road test.
“Last weekend playing at home, our fans were behind us and we had a ton of energy,” senior outside hitter Allison Wack said. “This last weekend on the road, I think we saw how we have to create energy on the court with so few fans for us on the road.”
This isn’t just another road game for coach Waite and his team. Not only is it a rare matchup of two undefeated squads, but the game has some added significance for another reason as well. Waite coached the Northern Illinois volleyball team for eleven seasons before being hired by University of Wisconsin 1999.
Asked if there was any extra pressure for this particular game, coach Waite gave a wry smile.
“In general it’s just another game but it’s a city where I put a lot of time in and my family spent a lot of time growing up,” Waite said. “A lot of the fans are still around from when I was there, a lot of family friends will be there, so there is some significance to it and it’ll be fun to go back.”
Since his departure after the 1998 season, the Huskies have erected a new gymnasium, so the feel will inevitably be different. But for Waite, still the all-time winningest volleyball coach in school history, an all too familiar environment awaits.
The players feel the added significance and have admitted there is extra meaning for this game.
“I think there’s definitely some significance for him,” Wack said. “It’s definitely special for him, [but] for us it’s just another match that we’re looking to that we’re really focusing on.”
