The UW women's volleyball team (3-2) gets its final non-conference test this weekend at the Field House for the InnTowner Invitational. The Badgers will open the round-robin tournament against Virginia (8-1) Friday night before taking on Marshall (4-3) and Cincinnati (5-2) Sunday.
After falling to Kansas last weekend, the Badgers fell from the top 25 for the first time since last December. This weekend will be the last chance for the team to get the ball rolling before it opens up Big Ten play next Friday against Ohio State.
\The losses are disappointing,"" said senior outside hitter Jill Odenthal. ""It was just us not clicking very well. We just need to find ourselves and start working as a unit and not seven individuals.""
""If we just play volleyball and play consistent we'll do fine,"" said junior outside hitter Aubrey Meierotto.
Meierotto, one of the team's co-captains, has seen good offense from her teammates, but knows that it is defense where the team needs to be more consistent.
""I think that in games when we've broken down, more so in the defensive area, that's when we've fell apart and lost games,"" she said. ""I think that, with us working on that in practice, it's really going to show this weekend.""
""I'd say between that weekend and the weekend before, we were off to a good but not great start,"" Head Coach Pete Waite said.
It is not going to be an easy weekend for Wisconsin. Virginia's only loss came at the hands of then-No. 20 Louisville. They have won their last seven matches and will try to make it eight Friday night. Cincinnati should give the Badgers their biggest challenge. After dropping their last two matches, the Bearcats will be hungry for victory.
""We definitely don't overlook any team,"" Meierotto said. ""We know that any team can come in and beat us even on our own court so we just have to come and play our game.""
Meierotto leads the team with six service aces so far this year. It will be important for Wisconsin to serve well if they hope to be successful this weekend.
""We have a couple of jump servers and I think that helps,"" Meierotto said. ""Just serving aggressive and bringing down our errors is going to be big for us.""
Making the weekend even more special is the fact that it could be a milestone weekend for Waite. With just one more victory, Waite, who is in his 17th season as a head coach, would reach his 400th victory.
""It's so hard for me to imagine 400 wins,"" Odenthal said. ""I've been here for quite a bit of them and that's definitely a great milestone for him.""
""We definitely as a team want to accomplish that both for him and for us,"" Meierotto said. ""He's a great coach. He's not much of a yeller, but he expects you to be great and give your all, all the time.""
""That's a great milestone, there's no doubt, but what it does is it makes you look back to when you started and how many teams and staffs you've been around and what players have done along the way to get you there,"" Waite said.
The Badgers will most likely get Waite to that milestone mark this weekend, but they know they need to do more than that. Three wins and a tournament championship would be a big boost before the Big Ten schedule begins.
