Greg Anderson / UW Athletics
All about the net play, with starter Kelli Bates.
The University of Wisconsin volleyball team entered Big Ten Conference play this week ranked 16th in the country with an 8-2 record.
The Badgers opened the 2015 season with a loss to Western Kentucky on Aug. 28 and then went on to win six straight matches against such non-conference teams as Georgia, Louisville and Kent State. The team features eight new players who are part of what PrepVolleyball.com calls 2015’s third-best recruiting class in the country, and it didn’t take long for them to generate on-court chemistry.
New recruits include Madison Duello, Hannah Juley, Amber MacDonald, Julia Saunders, Maddie Smith and Tionna Williams, as well as transfers Lauryn Gillis and Jordan Robbins.
Wisconsin lost seven letter-winners to graduation from last year’s squad, which won the 2014 Big Ten Conference title with a 19-1 record and advanced to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. But three starters returned (setter Lauren Carlini, outside hitter Kelli Bates and middle blocker Haleigh Nelson, as well as libero Taylor Morey).
Arkansas broke the Badgers’ eight-match winning streak on Sept. 19 in a five-set marathon in the final round of the Creighton Classic in Omaha, Neb. The defeat may have slowed some of UW’s momentum heading into Wednesday night’s Big Ten opener at top-ranked Penn State — which also happens to be the defending national champion.
“I liked our fight the last half of the match,” third-year UW head coach Kelly Sheffield, 2014’s Big Ten Coach of the year, told UWBadgers.com after the Arkansas loss. “I told them that there were plenty of positives to take out of that match. What we talked about going in was that if this was all about the net play, then we weren’t going to win this match.”
Nelson and Williams both set new career highs in kills, with 18 and 16, respectively, but the Razorbacks outblocked Wisconsin, 12-8.
After Penn State, the Badgers travel to Ohio State this weekend. They will be in action at the UW Field House on Sept. 30 against Illinois and Oct. 4 against Northwestern.
Longtime fans attending UW’s home volleyball games this season will notice new improvements at the venue, including the addition of more than 20 TVs located throughout the concourse and access to Badger Wi-Fi, UW’s free Wi-Fi service that was made available at Camp Randall Stadium last year. The better to tweet the action.
