It’s 6:47 p.m. on a Thursday night, and the Wisconsin volleyball team’s first-round match of the NCAA Tournament against Oregon is still 43 minutes away. The No. 6 Badgers take the court for warmups at that time, and the UW Field House is nearly half full.
By the time starting lineups are introduced over the P.A. system, the place is packed. Every fan, old and young, is on his or her feet, clapping to “On Wisconsin.”
The match itself went as planned. Oregon hung tough, but UW was just too much to handle, and the Badgers took the match in four sets.
And the fans were feeling it all night. The Field House was hot from start to finish.
After a wild rally put Wisconsin up 13-9 in the first set, Oregon head coach Jim Moore called timeout. All 4,563 fans, short of a sellout, but not by much, immediately rose and sent the Ducks cowering back to their bench.
It wouldn’t get comfortable for them all night. Though Thursday night’s crowd wasn’t the biggest of the season, it was certainly the loudest.
“I don’t think there’s anything better than playing in front of crowds like this,” Moore said. “That’s what it’s about.”
The passion the fans showed makes sense, most obviously in the fact it was the most important home match of the season against a skilled Oregon squad, no slouch of a first-round opponent. But when the product on the court is quality, and this team is really good, it shouldn’t come as a shock the program set a season attendance record that night, an evening in which the Packers played against the Detroit Lions.
Senior libero Taylor Morey, playing her last matches at Field House this weekend, said when the team raises its energy level come tournament time, the crowd followed suit.
“That’s awesome, to be on a team to step out on the court and our crowd is 100 percent behind us,” Morey said.
The Field House sold out five times this season. In 14 of the 16 home matches up to Dec. 3, the team drew more than 4,200 fans. UW averaged 5,042 fans per match, ranking third in the entire nation.
So when the 134th fan passed through the Field House’s doors, UW had officially set a new program record in attendance, eclipsing the original mark of 75,750 set in 2007. The record now stands at 85,757 after last weekend. For Thursday’s match, Sheffield bought the tickets for the first 200 fans in the student section. And voila, the student section was full from top to bottom.
“Fired up about that. Great crowd. Great numbers,” Sheffield said. “Even more than the numbers is just how into it they were all night long. From the very first serve I thought our crowd was just into it. That was awesome.”
The crowd was even hotter come Friday night’s first serve. With a third consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, they had to exceed the previous night’s decibel levels. When Iowa State would threaten, the fans would let their team know they still had their backs.
Junior setter and all-Big Ten selection Lauren Carlini said the fan’s support helps keep the momentum. The cheering also gives Wisconsin a sense of purpose on the court.
“It really helps with momentum, and knowing that people are supporting us and backing us and that they’re cheering for us,” Carlini said. “So when you start to hear the crowd get riled up, you want to play better because you know they’re rooting for you. They’ve been like that all season.”
The fans really up the numbers during Big Ten season. As the caliber of opponents increases, so does the crowd size. The attendance average for conference matches was 5,492, which ranked second all-time in team history.
For sophomore outside hitter Lauryn Gillis, a transfer from University of Southern California playing her first season in Madison, it’s impressive how the crowd knows exactly when the team needs a boost.
“It really is amazing how they know when we need that little spark,” Gillis said. “We want to play for them whenever they get going for us. We want to perform and do our best for them.”
Ed Matthews, a 52-year-old UW fan from Oregon, Wisconsin, isn’t a season-ticket holder, but he and his wife try to get to as many matches as possible. This season, they made it to roughly “half a dozen matches,” he said.
“It’s a great atmosphere and the product is good,” Matthews said. “It’s good volleyball.”
Matthews is certainly right about that. Since head coach Kelly Sheffield took over the program in 2013, the Badgers are 84-19 for a winning percentage of .815. Over that time span, the team is 39-8 at the Field House.
The fans indeed have a lot to cheer about for the home team.
Patty and Mike King were in Madison from Aimes, Iowa to cheer on Iowa State, who fell to UW in the second round of the tournament Friday evening. The Cyclones rank second in the Big 12 in attendance and 12th in the country, so the large crowd wasn’t a shock to them, but Mike King said a program of UW’s caliber should have large crowds.
“We expected it,” he said.
The equation is simple. A talented team plus quality opponents equals passionate fans, and ultimately, success.