The coming of fall marks the beginning of the new school year, complete with new classes and a lot of new faces to learn. The same can be said about this year's UW athletics teams.
While the fall season is usually highlighted by football, UW's volleyball, men's and women's soccer and cross-country programs are beginning to make a little more noise on campus. Here is a quick preview for the upcoming season for these UW sports.
After losing two all-Americans'Lizzy Fitzgerald and Sherisa Livingston'to graduation, one would think that this season would be a rebuilding one for the UW volleyball team. However, Head Coach Pete Waite returns 10 letterwinners from last season, keeping some of the nucleus from the past two successful seasons.
The Badgers finished last season ranked seventh in the nation, with a stellar 27-4 record. After making it to the regional semifinals in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in school history, the Badgers are looking to regain the form that took them to the national championship match in 2000.
With the departure of Livingston and Fitzgerald, senior defensive specialist Erin Byrd will lead the Badgers into tough 2002 conference and non-conference schedules. Byrd has led the Badgers in digs for the past two years, with 2.90 per game this past season, and looks to help continue the success of the volleyball program.
Waite will need some of his younger players to step up this season in order to remain successful in the Big Ten this year. Other teams will target the Badgers as they look to knock UW off of its winning ways.
\I think all the other Big Ten teams and teams in the country look at us as this is their chance to get us, basically, to get the win that we've been taking on them the last couple of years, which I think is an incentive which excites the team and gets them fired up for training and to work harder,"" Waite said.
There is a little excitement in the air with men's soccer as new Head Coach Jeff Rohrman attempts to bring back some flavor to UW's soccer program.
While the Badgers lose the talents of seven seniors from a year ago, including one of the Big Ten's top scoring duos from last fall'2001 seniors Dominic DaPra and Aaron Lauber'they will return six starters to the lineup, five who were freshmen in 2001.
The Badgers will look to improve on their 10-8-1 record from year ago with a great deal of emphasis on maturity. With a young team like coach Rohrman has, it is going to be necessary for everyone on this team to step up and grow into the shoes that their seniors from last year left behind.
The main area for concern is clearly going to be around the offensive side of the game. Players like freshman John McGrady and sophomore Joe Anderson are having good spring workouts and games and will look to become one of the many popular faces on campus.
Finishing the season with a disappointing 5-11-3 overall record, the Badgers' women's soccer team looks get back to its winning ways from the past couple years. For that to happen, Head Coach Dean Duerst team will have to find a way to put some points on the board. Totaling 21 goals last season, compared to its opponents' 28, UW needs to improve and will count on senior midfielder Lauren Schmidt to advance her game to a new level.
The stable in front of the net is still intact with goalie Kelly Conway and her superb play over the past few years. Conway, a senior from Littleton, Colo., led the Big Ten in saves last year, has started every game for the past three years in goal for the Badgers and could have the school record for career saves by the end of this season.
Sophomores Molly Meuer from Madison and Kristen Betz of Pewaukee were named Freshmen of the Year by the coaching staff and will need to help fill the void left by departed senior Kelly Kundert.
Senior leadership and an offensive explosion are the keys to this year's season. Conway and Schmidt, the returning team MVPs, will be looked to lead the squad.
The men's cross country team is finally beginning to make a name for itself on the UW campus.
Back-to-back NCAA Championship trips have not only proven to be a great stepping stone for Head Coach Jerry Schumacher's squad, but they have also been very successful.
After sharing the Big Ten Championship this past year, the Badgers' distance runners were led by freshmen all-Americans Matt Tegenkamp and Josh Spiker, who finished seventh and eighth respectively and propelled the team to a fifth-place finish.
The emergence of these two enduring athletes creates a strong nucleus for Schumacher's crew for the next few years. In addition to Tegenkamp and Spiker, the team will have juniors Joe Eckerly and Drew Hohense, who both have experienced championship competition in the past two years.
The conditioning and depth of this year's squad will make the Badgers runners marked men as they set out to defend their Big Ten title.
The Badger ladies look to rebound after a somewhat disappointing season last year and, on top of that, they lost the Big Ten women's cross country athlete of the year in Bethany Brewster.
However, this is a lot of the motivation driving this year's team towards a successful fall campaign. Ranked nationally throughout the year, the Badgers are led this year by junior Liz Reusser and sophomores Michelle Lilienthal, Sarah Koplin and Leslie Patterson.
Head Coach Peter Tegen's talented young group of runners have their sights on a Big Ten title and will have the depth to do it. The UW women's cross country team is still a dominating force in the nation and one to reckon with.
