After a rough road trip last weekend dropped the No. 14 Wisconsin volleyball team to fourth in the Big Ten standings, the Badgers (4-2 Big Ten, 12-4 overall) will get another chance to assert itself as a conference heavyweight when it takes on No. 9 Purdue Friday at the UW Field House.
The Boilermakers (5-1, 15-2) are tied with No. 23 Minnesota for second in the conference after narrowly defeating last-place Iowa 3-2 Saturday. As the third consecutive ranked Big Ten opponent for the Badgers, Purdue will give Wisconsin a chance to re-establish itself after recent losses to No. 2 Penn State and No. 16 Ohio State.
""We feel pretty good about things and the way we played,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said at a Monday press conference in reference to the road trip. ""But we need to be strong for this weekend because Purdue is a very big match for us.""
Waite is 12-2 overall and 6-1 at home against Purdue as Wisconsin's head coach, but the sole home loss came last year. The Badgers defeated the Boilermakers earlier in the season at Purdue, as the two teams split the season series.
This year, the Boilermakers boast two sophomores, Danita Merlau and Kelli Miller, who won Big Ten Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week respectively for their efforts against Iowa and Indiana last week. Merlau leads the team in kills (4.12 per game) and service aces (25) while Miller leads in digs with 4.27 per game. Sophomore Stephanie Lynch leads the team in hitting percentage (.309) and blocks (1.15 per game).
Despite only losing twice this season, Purdue has needed five games to secure four of its last five match victories.
The Badgers will get a breather Sunday when they host Indiana (1-5, 10-8), who enter the weekend with a five-match losing streak. Though the Hoosiers are not of the same caliber as recent opponents, Waite said he is taking nothing for granted.
""[We play] Indiana on Sunday, who is 1-5 in the conference right now, but got a good road win at Michigan, who was a top-20 team a week ago,"" he said.
Sophomore Erica Short leads Indiana with 4.77 kills per game, nearly twice as many as anyone else on the team. Junior Annie Moddrell leads the team in hitting percentage (.277) and blocks (1.18 per game), while senior Sara Diehl leads in digs (3.17 per game).
Wisconsin won both meetings between the two teams last year and has not lost to the Hoosiers since 2002.
The biggest question mark for the Badgers heading into the weekend will be senior Maria Carlini. Carlini, who ranks second on the team in kills, was pulled from Friday's match against the Buckeyes due to a foot injury and did not play Saturday against Penn State. The injury has been nagging Carlini since UW's Sept. 22 game against Illinois, and she has in recent weeks had to practice in the pool away from the team in order to be ready for weekend play.
