The UW volleyball team was back in action this weekend, taking part in the Iowa State Spring Tournament in Ames, Iowa, Saturday. The Badgers took part in three exhibition matches against Creighton, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Iowa State.
Wisconsin split with Creighton in the first round, winning its first game 30-26 before losing the second game 30-24. The Badgers moved on to defeat UM-KC 30-18, 30-17 but finished the day with a loss to Iowa State 30-27, 30-20, 30-22. Wisconsin played one additional game against the Cyclones and finished the day with a victory, 33-31.
""We had flashes of good play but couldn't maintain our consistency,"" UW coach Pete Waite said. ""We definitely improved by the end of the day.""
Perhaps more important than the record at the end of the day was the individual efforts made by some key players. Freshman outside hitter Brittney Dolgner's game has not dropped off since her stellar fall season performance, as she finished with a team-high 29 kills on the day and added 23 digs. Junior middle blocker Taylor Reineke had a team-high five blocks while junior libero Jocelyn Wack and junior defensive specialist Megan Mills came up with 28 and 21 digs respectively.
To adjust for the loss of graduated seniors Maria Carlini and Amy Bladow, Waite used Saturday as an opportunity to experiment with his starting lineup over the weekend. Junior Maya Carroll started at the open middle blocker position and led the team in hitting with .270, throwing down 15 kills.
On the outsides, freshman outside hitter Caity DuPont started on the left while freshman Katherine Dykstra started as a hitter on the right side. Dykstra was listed as a middle blocker throughout the fall season and finished 2006 with only 13 kills and 13 blocks. But in Saturday's performance, she tallied 17 kills and three blocks for the day. DuPont put up big numbers as well, finishing second on the team with 26 kills for the day.
Wisconsin's next spring matchup will be on Wednesday night, when the team hosts UW-Milwaukee in an exhibition match at 6 p.m. in the UW Field House.
A-—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
