Less than a week removed from their first clash of the season, No. 11 Wisconsin volleyball will again face the Michigan Wolverines Wednesday at 7 p.m. — this time in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Last Friday’s match at the UW Field House provided fans with one of the most exciting displays of volleyball all season in the match’s first set.
Ending with 62 total points and a 32-30 Wisconsin victory, the rallies never seemed to end. Down by four points, a subsequent six-point run saw the Badgers leapfrog the Wolverines to a 23-21 lead. But costly serving and attacking errors down the stretch plagued both sides. Tied at 25, neither team could deliver a knockout blow until finally a Haleigh Nelson kill and block on the next play shut the door on Michigan.
Having exerted much of their energy from the set, Michigan looked deflated in the next two sets, dropping both.
The Wolverines, after losing its last three matches to No. 21 Illinois (3-0), No. 13 Wisconsin (3-0) and No. 4 Minnesota (3-0), dropped out of the AVCA Top 25 this week. They currently find themselves in eighth place in the Big Ten standings, tied with archrival Michigan State.
A rebound against Wisconsin, while unlikely for a team that falls in the bottom half of most statistical categories in the Big Ten, could save the Wolverines’ chances at fortuitous prospective-seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
Riding a six-game win-streak, however, Wisconsin doesn’t seem ready to let that happen.
“We know we’re playing against a [Michigan] team that is very, very different at home,” UW head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I think they’re 4-3 on the road and 10-6 at home, and that’s a really tough place to play. It’s a team that is very comfortable playing there, and so it’s a very different match.”
Serving has been a lagging issue for Wisconsin these past few matches, accruing numerous service errors against Michigan State (5), Michigan (8) and Indiana (8). The team is making a conscious effort to curtail the problem.
“The difference is the beginning of the year,” Sheffield said. “We had one player that I thought was a really good server, and the others just were very average. Now they’ve got that part of their game, it’s just bringing it every night.”
Despite the one nagging aspect of the Badgers’ game, the team has played very efficient volleyball in the past few matches, averaging a hitting percentage of .360 percent and 43.3 kills per match over the last three matches.
Wednesday’s match will be available on BTN Plus and 92.1 The Mic.
