The Wisconsin volleyball team will take another road trip out West this weekend for the Loyola Marymount Invitational in Los Angeles. The No. 10 Badgers (5-1) will face Columbia and Tulane, and host Loyola Marymount in their final pre-Big Ten Conference season tournament of 2007.
LMU is led by 6’2’’ opposite hitter Heather Hughes, who averages over 20 kills per match. The home-team Lions are fresh off a second-place finish at their own LMU Classic last weekend that included a 3-0 sweep of Big Ten foe Northwestern.
“We know they are tough,” said head coach Pete Waite. “Especially on their home court, they’re going to be even better.”
While the Ivy League’s Columbia has yet to play a match this fall, Tulane boasts an undefeated season record of 7-0. The Green Wave has several foreign players who dominate the statistics, including junior outside hitters Sara Radosevic and Ksenija Vlaskovic, who together average nearly nine kills per game.
“Tulane is a good team, and we’ve got to go in prepared for everything,” said sophomore outside hitter Katherine Dykstra. “They’re going to be scrappy. As good of hitters as we have, they will be able to fight back, as we found out last weekend. We’ve got to go in there strong.”
Last Friday, Wisconsin lost its first match of the season to the host Cougars in the first round of the BYU Molten Classic.
“It was actually a good loss,” said Dykstra. “We would like to win every game this season, but if you’ve got to lose one, might as well lose it early and get it out of the way.”
The Badgers will need to take what they can from the loss in Provo and move on quickly, as they are in the midst of a 10-game absence from the UW Field House.
“Road matches are always tougher than playing at home,” said senior middle blocker Taylor Reineke. “It’s tough, but these first two preseason tournaments are really preparing us.”
“[The tournaments] teach us to get better, just like it will be for the Big Ten season,” said Waite. “We’re fine with it, it doesn’t bother us.”
Focus is the objective of the team as it takes on three final non-conference opponents before four straight road games to begin the Big Ten season.
“On these away games, we just need to focus on our game and play like we know we can,” said sophomore outside hitter Caity DuPont.
Dykstra said the Badgers are fighting harder as a team, knowing they will always have support back in Madison.
“No matter how many games we’re away, we have the Field House to come back to and it’s such a great atmosphere,” she said. “We know we’re coming back to our fans, which is so much better than playing on the road.”
