A heightened sense of intensity was present at the Wisconsin volleyball team’s practice Wednesday evening.
The reason: The Badgers (11-0) open up Big Ten play this weekend against two of the top opponents they will face all year.
After completing the non-conference, or “first-season” as senior Allison Wack tabbed it, undefeated and unscathed, the team plays host to the No. 25 Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1) tonight and three-time defending national champion, No. 2 Penn State team on Sunday afternoon.
Even though the team sports a perfect 11-0 record, the Badgers feel no extra pressure to win.
“Look, I think it’s safe to say we’ll lose a match during the course of the season, the Big Ten season is awfully tough,” head coach Pete Waite said. “These kids are used to winning and they’re used to taking losses during the course of their career, it just happens. You don’t try to get too excited or too down about either, you try to stay steady, keep improving your game, and try to get a great matchup against your opponent that night.”
The task seems daunting, but this youthful Badger team feels as though they can compete with Ohio State.
“They are the Buckeyes, it’s a big deal, but we’ve been scouting them and we’re not afraid,” freshman Dominique Thompson said.
These Badgers carry a certain swagger that can only be developed by previous success. They’ll need that swagger and precision in the coming weeks if they hope to maintain their perfect record.
“That’s the level of Big Ten play, but at the same time we’ve seen that level in different bursts during the course of the pre-conference season,” Waite said. “Everyday in practice we’re doing what we can to ratchet things up and get the speed of the game going faster.”
Increased team speed and team size make the Buckeyes a formidable foe. Buckeyes middle blocker Mariah Booth took home Big Ten defensive player of the week honors last week. The week preceding the Buckeyes other middle blocker, Allie Schwarzwalder, took home the award.
Fortunately, inside and upfront are two of Wisconsin’s strengths.
The Badgers employ two talented middle blockers in freshman Dominique Thompson and sophomore Alexis Mitchell.
“I think both our middle blockers match up very well with them,” Waite said.
Wack, one of only three seniors on the team, is confident in how Wisconsin’s hitters will match up with both Booth and Schwarzwalder.
“We have a lot of hitters that like to hit high off the blocks so it’s not that [their] blocks will be in our face a ton, hopefully we’ll hit around it,” Wack said. “Their speed is definitely something we’ll have to adjust to, but we kind of run a fast offense as well so we’ve been practicing against it all along.”
Waite briefly revealed the team’s strategy to match the Buckeyes tenacity at the middle blocker position.
“Anytime you have a good middle blocker on the other side you want to make them move, you wanna make them get out of their comfort zone and go side to side a lot,” said Waite. “So if we can pass well and [Wisconsin setter Janelle Gabrielsen] can go from antenna to antenna, they’re gonna be chasing us.”
Although the team only has three seniors, Waite and the rest of the coaching staff feel confident the team is ready to take on the more experienced conference teams.
“I think everyone understands that we’re about to be facing competition that’s a lot higher than what we played in the preseason,” Wack said. “We tell the freshmen and the newcomers every single day that the Big Ten is a fight every night. You cannot take a night off and expect to win.”
