After three months of tournaments and intense conference matchups, the playing field in women's Division I volleyball has been cut down to 64 teams that will begin competing for the national championship this Friday in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. For the No. 10 Wisconsin volleyball team (16-4 Big Ten, 24-6 overall), the first round means win or stay home, as they have been given home court advantage in the first two stages of this year's tournament.
""It's huge,"" junior setter Jackie Simpson said of the opportunity to start the tournament at home. ""Any time you talk to any player at this school, they will tell you that our home court is one of the best places to play in the country. Our fans are amazing and they just love volleyball. Yes, they're here to support us, but I think there's going to be great showings for the rest of the matches here too.""
But home court is not the only advantage the Badgers have on their side going into this weekend. Earlier this week, UW head coach Pete Waite was named Big Ten Coach of the Year by his fellow conference coaches. Waite, who earned his 200th win at Wisconsin Saturday with a victory over Purdue, led the Badgers to their best Big Ten record since taking the conference title back in 2001.
Wisconsin also happens to boast a trio of players in Simpson, junior middle blocker Taylor Reineke and freshman outside hitter Brittney Dolgner who were named to the 2006 All-Big Ten Conference team. Simpson, Reineke and Dolgner have each consistently been ranked throughout the season as one of the top 10 players in the conference in assists, blocks and kills respectively. Dolgner is the first Wisconsin player to ever earn the honor of All-Big Ten as a freshman.
""That just shows the respect the opposing coaches in the Big Ten have for our players because in the voting we're not able to vote for our own,"" Waite said of his three honorees. ""They've all had great seasons, and I'll say it's due to a lot of the other members of the team helping them out and getting them to that point—especially Brittney coming out and being the first [Wisconsin] freshman to be on the All-Big Ten first team says a lot for how fast she's transitioned to the college game.""
The first opponent up on Wisconsin's list is Notre Dame (18-13). The Badgers beat the Fighting Irish in five games to get to the Elite Eight in last year's NCAA tournament, but the team that comes into the UW Field House Friday will be much different from the team Wisconsin faced in 2005. Notre Dame lost five seniors to graduation this spring and has not had a top 25 ranking since early September. With a victory on Friday, the Badgers would move on to play either UW-Milwaukee or Iowa State on Saturday in the second round.
""Overall as a team, we've got to figure out our opponents really quickly,"" Waite said. ""A lot of these teams are teams that we have not seen a lot of, especially with Notre Dame having probably four new starters out there ... UW-Milwaukee regularly wins their conference, which means they put together a good team. They're always very scrappy. And [head coach] Christy Johnson's done a great job at Iowa State. She came from our program—[as an assistant coach,] she recruited a number of our starters and knows our team very well, so she'll come in with a lot of information on us.""
If the Badgers can round up a pair of wins this weekend, they will be one step closer to getting past the Elite Eight mark that they have stopped at each of the last two years and finally reaching the Final Four.
""I think third time's a charm,"" Reineke said. ""I think we have all the parts we need, all the parts of the whole. I think, hopefully, we'll make it. We work hard, we're practicing really well, and we got over that slump we were in a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully we'll get there.""
