Time heals all wounds and as a few days have passed since UW volleyball's loss to No. 4 Penn State (6-0 Big Ten, 15-2 overall), the sting seems to have disappeared. After a day off and watching tapes of Saturday's showdown, it becomes transparent that No. 8 Wisconsin (5-1, 13-2) can take many positives away from the match, and that they would have had to play perfect or near-perfect ball in order to pull off the upset.
\I thought they [Penn State] were on all cylinders,"" said head coach Pete Waite. ""In that match we actually did a lot of really good things; there were just times where we weren't as aggressive as we should be on our serving, our passing and our hitting.""
While the Badgers may have been slightly favored going into the match due to their excellent play at home, Penn State showed that they are still the team to beat in the Big Ten. With senior Sam Tortorello guiding the offense and throwing off defenses with her serve, the Nittany Lions were perhaps underrated by many coming into this weekend. After all, their only two losses have come at the hands of No. 1 Nebraska and No. 3 Stanford.
""Penn State is an awesome team, obviously, and one of the best teams in the nation,"" said senior co-captain Sheila Shaw. ""They are going to reveal our weaknesses and we need to focus on how we're going to raise our game to the next level in order to compete with, or even beat, a team like that.""
As coach Waite said earlier in the year, the winner of the Big Ten will probably only have one or two losses; Wisconsin will have to refocus quickly if they want a chance at the conference title.
""The Penn State game taught us a lot of things that we have to do to be Big Ten champions, or in order to just do well in the Big Ten,"" said junior Maria Carlini. ""We learned a lot, and we have another shot at them in their house [October 28].""
Although UW has a short practice week with a Wednesday match, they do get a break from the Big Ten elite in the form of Northwestern (1-5, 10-6) and Indiana (1-5, 8-10), although one could never tell from asking the players or coaches.
""They're both really good teams and we still have to get really pumped up to play against them,"" said Carlini.
""Those teams are in the lower half, but on any given day these teams can play some very good ball,"" said Waite. ""Our team never looks past anybody, they respect every team that comes in our gym.""
Wednesday's 7:00 match brings a struggling team to the Field House, as Northwestern has lost three straight matches, albeit to tough competition. Having to run the gauntlet of Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Minnesota already, the Wildcats at the least are seasoned for tough matches. The main offense is supplied by Lindsay Anderson, who leads the team with 3.75 kills/game. They also split the setting duties between Lauren Greenwood and Stephanie Jurivich. However, at this point Wisconsin appears to be looking inward instead of toward the competition.
""We're not looking to make a statement, we're just trying to work on things like passing, defense, and things like that,"" said Shaw. ""If we focus on that we're going to do a great job.\
