Coming off back to back losses against border rival Minnesota last week, the Wisconsin volleyball team turns to another rival to get back in the win column.
The No. 16 Wisconsin Badgers (12-6, 4-4) will travel to Iowa City Friday to face the Iowa Hawkeyes (10-11, 0-8) in the first of a double header in the heart of Big Ten country.
Head coach Kelly Sheffield knows that despite the statistical stalemate the Badgers played last week, they need to play more consistently to leave with a victory.
“Coming off a week where we played Minnesota twice and statistically those looked like two real even teams,” Sheffield said. “I thought we were better than what we were previously, and that’s kind of the goal, but at the end of the day, I don’t think anybody is happy about going 0-2.”
In order to shake the losing streak, the Badgers will need to continue to count on solid offense from outside hitters Lauryn Gillis and Kelli Bates, who both average above three kills per set, and stout defense from freshman sensation Tionna Williams, who tied her career high with seven blocks last week against Minnesota.
Volleyball: Badgers fall to Minnesota in thriller at UW Field House
With having such a young roster this season — the Badgers only have one senior — Sheffield knows that every minute in the gym needs to be an opportunity to improve and mature.
“Being in the gym is so critical to development, much more so than being able to sit there in the film room,” Sheffield said. “It will be nice not to have a Sunday match for just training purposes. You’ve got a young team; you want to be in the gym with them.”
Despite the abundance of freshman and sophomores in the roster, Sheffield knows his team has improved throughout the season.
They will need to learn from past experiences if they want to have the opportunity to mount a deep tournament run, Sheffield said.
“We don’t sit there too much and talk about our age,” Sheffield said. “What we talk about is what do we need to do to become the team that we are capable of becoming.
“To be as good as what we are capable of being, we are going to have to clean some of this stuff up a little bit, and it’s not major stuff, we just got get better. We got to get better in a lot of different areas.”
While that improvement may not always be evident in the box score, it should be clear to everyone these aren’t the same Badgers that were there to start the season.
“You don’t even need to look at the stats,” Sheffield said. “Anybody that just watches our team is saying this team’s better than what they were a month ago.”
Sheffield and the Badgers hope to see that progress turn into positive results against the struggling Hawkeyes.
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