The No. 25 UW volleyball team (6-2) will journey down south to Georgia this weekend to compete in the Georgia Tech Invitational. The girls are coming off of a tournament sweep last weekend at the Badger Invitational and are hoping to see similar results this weekend.
The Badgers will open up tournament play Friday against host Georgia Tech (6:30 p.m.), which will put up a fight. The Yellow Jackets are undefeated coming into the weekend (8-0) and are ranked No. 5 in the nation. Head Coach Pete Waite knows that this will be a challenging first game for his team.
\We're hoping to compete with the highly ranked Georgia Tech team,"" Waite said. ""They're possibly the hottest team in the nation right now.""
On Saturday the Badgers will face South Florida at noon and Western Carolina at 2 p.m. Wisconsin could also see another tough match against Western Carolina. The Catamounts (7-3) are coming off back-to-back tournament titles and seven straight matches won.
One thing that might bring the team down this weekend is the injury of senior setter Morgan Shields. Last week Shields fractured her right wrist but she plans on playing this weekend. Waite commented that he is impressed with her left-handed serve but knows that it does not help as much as when she is hitting her jump serves with her right hand.
Last week Waite made some changes on the court by giving junior outside hitter Marian Weidner a chance to start on the left side, and moving senior outside hitter Lisa Zukowski to libero. He expects more changes to be made throughout the season.
""I really like this team-they work hard for each other. I think there's some good chemistry out there so they may see some different lineups and some different people contributing throughout the course of the year,"" Waite said.
The Badgers hope to come out on top this weekend against three dangerous teams. If Wisconsin produces solid play, they will be on top of their game and have great momentum as they enter Big Ten action next week.
