As the fans filed into the UW Fieldhouse Sunday for the No. 16 Badgers’ (6-4 Big Ten, 17-5 overall) matchup with the Illinois Fighting Illini (5-5, 9-11), there was considerably more orange than red. On a weekend where Halloween took center-stage, this difference in fan support seemed to be a bad omen, as the Illini knocked out the Badgers 3-1.
“It’s disappointing to see more students for the opposing team than for our own. You don’t expect more people to be willing to drive than just get out of bed and walk across campus,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “We could’ve used that support today, I don’t know what [the students] are waiting for.”
The Badgers started the first set slow, then started to fight back, but lost 25-22. Four service errors were the difference for UW.
“As a team, we beat ourselves. I don’t think it was so much that Illinois had anything spectacular,” junior hitter Deme Morales said.
The second set had 15 ties and nine lead changes as the Illini won 28-26. The Badgers had an abysmal hitting percentage of .174 for the set, .45 points lower than their season average of .221.
The Badgers came out firing on all cylinders in the third set, taking a wire-to-wire victory 25-10. Wisconsin looked as good in this set as they have in any, with both consistency and flashy plays.
“There was no Knute Rockne speech, it was our players getting a better feel for the opponent’s tempo,” Sheffield said.
The Illini run an offense that utilizes high “moon shots” that are slow moving, but get above the hands of blockers, forcing back row players to quickly react. A slow offensive tempo such as this can be difficult to get used to after games against high tempo teams like Michigan State and Minnesota.
“Coming out in game three, we executed, but in game four, we went back to our old ways,” freshman setter Lauren Carlini said.
The fourth set was much like the first, with the Badgers coming up just short, losing the set 25-22. Again, untimely errors ended any hopes the Badgers had of keeping momentum.
Some may attribute this loss to fatigue from a tough schedule, but the team was quick to shoot down those rumors.
“I think we’re a good, mentally tough team, and we’ve had enough days off with some lighter practices, so fatigue wasn’t a problem at all,” Carlini said.
While Illinois’ offensive workhorse sophomore Jocelynn Birks was kept in check with a .048 hitting percentage, junior Liz McMahon stepped up with 20 kills and a .375, .132 points higher than her career average.
A bright spot for the Badgers was their perfect serve receive game (80 received and no errors). However, 21 hitting errors and nine serving errors sunk the team.
With the first half of the conference season wrapped up, the team is looking forward to continue their generally solid play.
“I’m looking forward to the second half of the conference [season]. The challenge going forward is that our next nine opponents are people we’ve already played, so there’s a lot more adjustments,” Sheffield said.
Wisconsin has a two-game road trip next weekend with a game Friday against the Indiana Hoosiers, and Saturday against the extremely hot No. 21 Purdue Boilermakers.
