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After his team grinded out a 3-1 win over in-state rival University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Tuesday night at the Field House, University of Wisconsin volleyball head coach Kelly Sheffield talked basketball.

Why? He found the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game Monday a perfect analogy for the kind of mental toughness he wants to breed in his players. That toughness, he says, comes from being able to move on to the next play quickly regardless of a past mistake.

“One thing I saw from that championship game [Monday] night was two teams who were playing with a lot of competitiveness, a lot of toughness and a lot of freedom,” Sheffield said. “If they stopped and worried about what just happened, it would have been over.”

The positive responses by both Michigan and Louisville to multiple runs and lead changes throughout the championship game served as a reminder to Wisconsin’s head coach of what kind of attitude he wants his team to embrace.

“I think mental toughness is moving on to the next play quickly, and we have to do a better job of that,” Sheffield said. “I think right now when we make errors, one error turns into two or three and that’s what we’re seeing right now and we have to grow out of that and we’ll learn.”

Those words drew directly off of his team’s struggles with consistent play Tuesday night, as the Badgers committed 16 attack errors, 12 service errors and four receiving errors against the UWM Panthers.  Wisconsin saw a combination of miscues derail its lead in sets several times; it became a source of concern in a match that featured the score tied 30 times and the lead changing hand during 10 different instances.

The best example of the team’s inconsistent play during the night was the second set. Leading at one point in the second, 23-21, UW allowed UWM to, ultimately, escape with a win, thanks to 11 of Milwaukee’s points in the set coming from errors committed by the home team.

Wisconsin showed some of the grit Sheffield has been looking for when it clinched the match in the decisive fourth set. After falling behind 7-2, the Badgers roared back with a 6-1 run to even the score and force a Panther timeout. Later in the set with the score tied again, this time at 15-15, the team used a 10-2 run to close out the set and the match.

That response to the pressure, the slow start and the adversity of a match was something emphasized in the locker room before Wisconsin even took the floor.

“One of the things we talked about before our match, a goal for our team, is when we’re down to not give up, because that’s been a huge problem in the past,” sophomore outside hitter Ellen Chapman said. “Tonight, even if we were down, we knew in our heads we were going to win. We just moved on to the next ball.”

So, how did Sheffield manage to already affect the mental toughness and the way his team thinks when it faces a tough situation just a few months into the job? He realizes the problem his team is facing in regards to handling adversity is a struggle that every sports team faces.

“It’s not a Wisconsin volleyball team issue; it’s an anybody who’s playing any sport issue,” Sheffield said of players getting down on themselves. “It’s what’s hard about sports. How do you embrace challenges? How do you fight? How do you come back after a tough loss? When you’ve got a nice lead, how are you able to pound and finish?

“It’s really hard when you’re in the match to respond appropriately, and that’s certainly something we talk about an awful lot with our team.”

Although the games are more or less scrimmages against nonconference teams who are not at the same strength as a Big Ten foe, the Badgers are still finding the time to be a big boost to adapt to Sheffield’s philosophy of focusing on the next play.

“With that mentality, it’s been a really big leap for us,” junior libero Annemarie Hickey said. “We’re not afraid of that pressure anymore that’s coming on us or afraid that we’re going to lose all the time. We had people fighting the entire time [tonight].

“It’s always, ‘next ball, next play.’ You’re never dwelling on the ball you messed up before. I think just coming in the huddle between that point, just saying one or two things, just coming into the huddle, always knowing we can do this and we’re always together.”

With their final home game of the spring in the books and another solid win in hand, Sheffield is optimistic about the level of response he’s seen from his players to his coaching and the heightened expectations he’s put on the entire program.

“We’re getting better, there’s no question,” Sheffield said. “But the nature of our business is you’re never satisfied. Are we getting better? Yeah. The fun thing is we have the talent that we’re going to continue to get better. That talent is willing to put in the work to get better.”