In December of 2000, the Wisconsin Badger volleyball team burst onto the national scene, reaching the NCAA championship finals.
More than seven years have passed, but strangely, not much has changed. This year's personnel are bizarrely similar to the team in 2000.
The previous Big Ten championship team was led by two-time All-American setter Lizzy Fitzgerald in 2000 and 2001.
Senior All-American setter Jackie Simpson runs the league-leading offense that dishes out 15.5 assists per game halfway through the season. Simpson's 13.39 assists each game also leads all other Big Ten individuals.
In the middle, the 2000 squad was led by All-American Sherisa Livingston who simply dominated the net both offensively and defensively. Now, the middle blocking team of senior Taylor Reineke and junior Audra Jeffers has stepped up to the challenge.
At the midway point of the conference season, Reineke currently ranks fourth in blocks per game with 1.64 and is fifth in hitting percentage, with a .346 successful kill rate. Jeffers, ranking sixth in the conference, adds 1.42 blocks to the front line, while hitting .308 on offense.
I would compare this team to that [team] as far as level of play, experience on the court, and volleyball IQ,"" head coach Pete Waite said. ""It's a team that is well balanced offensively and defensively, and a number of those started have been the core group for years.""
The 2000 squad took a Big Ten Championship with a conference record of 19-1, and 34-3 overall. If this year's team wins their final 16 games, including the NCAA championship, its record will be 19-1 in the Big Ten and 33-2 overall, just one win less than in 2000.
The NCAA tournament series is even setting up similarly as it was seven years ago. In 2000, first and second round games were held in the Field House where the Badgers swept Bucknell and Northern Iowa. Though it has yet to be determined if Wisconsin will host the first two rounds, the likelihood of the Field House being chosen for the opening rounds is high.
It is known that the Field House will host rounds three and four, just like it did at the turn of the century. In the round of 16, Wisconsin took out Kansas State before squeaking past UCLA in the round of eight in a five-game thriller.
In the final four, the Badgers swept a surprised USC squad in Richmond, Va. Finally, on Dec. 16, the Badgers ran out of gas in the NCAA Championship, losing to Nebraska in five games.
The date of this year's finals: Dec. 15.
Take it to the house
Sunday's matinee versus Penn State recorded the first ever sellout of the UW Field House for a volleyball match. Officially, 10,326 fans packed the stadium - No. 2 on Wisconsin's all-time attendance list.
""I definitely like larger crowds,"" senior middle blocker Taylor Reineke said. ""We play better. It inspires us to play at our best - it's invigorating.
""It's what you live for - having people come to watch you. Now there's a whole world out there that comes to watch us,"" she added.
The all-time attendance record occurred in 1990, before recent fire code restrictions limited the building's capacity. That November, 10,935 came to the Field House to see the Badgers take on Illinois in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
