The Wisconsin volleyball team wrapped up spring play Saturday with an appearance in the 2006 Great Lakes Center NCAA Invitational held in Aurora, Ill. The Badgers bowed out after four best-of-three matches in this double-elimination tournament, finishing with a 2-2 record for the day.
The 24 teams that participated in the tournament were divided up into pools of three to begin play in the morning. Wisconsin opened up the day with an even record in their pool, earning a 31-29, 30-27 win over Bowling Green but later giving up a 30-18, 26-30, 11-15 loss to South Carolina.
In the second half of action, the Badgers advanced to take on Arizona, an Elite Eight representative from last fall's NCAA tournament. Wisconsin soundly defeated the Wildcats 30-22, 30-25. But their day came to a close in the next match up when they fell in two games to Purdue 27-30, 28-30.
Overall, the team hung in there and did some nice things,\ head coach Pete Waite said. ""We had to play a variety of line-ups but I thought that today was the best day of the spring for Katie Lorenzen. She's made a lot of strides during the last two months.""
One impeding factor in the Badgers' performance at the tournament was health problems. Junior middle blocker Maria Carlini played through an illness while freshman outside hitter Audra Jeffers sat out all day Saturday with a sore back. Sophomore setter Jackie Simpson also remained on the bench with a broken right hand she sustained just prior to playing against Hawaii in a tournament in March. Simpson did not play in any games during the spring season, which meant increased playing time for junior Katie Lorenzen at the setter position.
""In general, we had a good spring,"" Waite said. ""I think we improved a lot. We were not always on the top of our game due to injuries but we still saw some good progress.""
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