Flying high after its first conference win of the season,
the Wisconsin volleyball team takes to the road this weekend to face Iowa and
Minnesota.
The Badgers (12-7, 1-7) disposed of Purdue on Sunday,
earning their first Big Ten win, but head coach Pete Waite and
his staff are hoping the team has found its midseason form.
In the early portion of the conference slate, the Badgers
were faced with several close matches, but the young team was unable to pull
out wins. Yet, the long-term goals
for the season remain the same: Improve, win matches and receive a NCAA
tournament berth.
“Obviously, we’d like to reverse the results of a few of
those matches, we had some close ones, and we had an injury to a starter in
between,” Waite said. “We’d like
to turn it around and start climbing up the conference rankings.”
Despite a 1-7 record, the depth of the conference will allow
for many teams to receive tournament bids. The Big Ten has nine teams within four games of each other,
thus a strong second half for Wisconsin could prove to be enough to vault them
into postseason contention. The
Badgers will undoubtedly have to finish the conference season stronger than they began it, but hope remains.
“For this team, especially with our losing streak, we came
in everyday in practice, and improved,” senior outside hitter Allison Wack
said. “Our long-term goal is to
win some more matches and get into the tournament, it’s always on the back of
our mind.”
The second half of the Big Ten season begins this Friday
with a golden opportunity as the Badgers travel to Iowa to take on
the Hawkeyes (6-11, 1-7), the only Big Ten team with a losing record. Iowa is on a five-match losing streak and
has lost 10 of its last 11 matches.
Iowa plays in Carver-Hawkeye Arena – a basketball arena – posing vision challenges and dispersed crowd noise. Ohio State head coach Geoff Carlson called it the toughest
venue for opposing teams in the conference.
“It’s difficult because it’s a basketball arena,” Wack agreed. “It’s big, the ceilings are super high,
which is something we don’t see at any gym we go to. It’s just harder to see in there.”
A key for the Badgers has been sustaining energy and
intensity levels throughout the match, something the team has yet to fully
conquer.
“[Against] Purdue, we maintained a consistent energy, we
weren’t too high, we weren’t too low,” setter Janelle Garbielsen said. “Sometimes in other games we get too low, we won’t be talking or
anything, or we’ll get super high and have to go back down to medium. If we
just stay at a consistent level of energy, I think that’s when we play our
best.”
Freshmen Elise Walch and Julie Mikaelsen have progressed
nicely for Wisconsin, giving Gabrielsen and the Badgers more options when
attacking. Additionally, starting
middle hitter Alexis Mitchell, who sustained a sprained ankle earlier in the
season, is back at full strength.
Mitchell gives Garbielsen the slide attack, which involves a
deceptive quick set to Mitchell while the setter draws the blockers
forward. The motion confuses
blockers and allows for an open floor for the hitter.
“Every time I set the slide it’s a good set,” Gabrielsen
said. “Most of the time the slide
is good when I’m reversing the flow, so if I’m moving forward, I’ll set the slide
because the blockers are moving forward with me and she’ll get one-on-one every
time.”
The team hopes to receive the support of Wisconsin fans
traveling to Iowa for Saturday’s football showdown.
“We have let all the people know who are season ticket
holders who are possibly gonna be at that game that we’ll be there and inviting
them to join us,” Waite said. “So hopefully there will be a good amount of them that come
out.”
