After a successful campaign in Indiana last week, the No. 7 Wisconsin volleyball team (11-1 Big Ten, 19-2 overall) returns to the UW Field House this weekend to start a four match home stand, starting with Michigan State (5-7, 14-10) tonight and Northwestern (5-7, 14-9) Saturday. Despite residing in the lower half of the conference standings, both the Spartans and Wildcats knocked off No. 20 Michigan last week and are looking to earn another upset against the Badgers.
Where they are placed [in the Big Ten] doesn't mean anything to us,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said of Michigan State and Northwestern. ""We know they're both hot teams right now. They've both won more [matches] in the last two weekends than they had in the first couple of weekends in Big Ten play.
""We know after some losses, [both teams] have made adjustments and have become better teams. We have to be on our game to be able to beat them.""
Michigan State will be looking for senior outside hitter Ashley Schatzle to build on the performance she had last weekend against the Wolverines, when she hit .411 on 56 hits and tallied a team-high 19 digs. As a team, the Spartans have held an edge on most conference opponents in serving, ranking third in the Big Ten in service aces.
Northwestern tops all teams in the conference, ranking first in service aces with 1.55 per game. In their match against Michigan, the Wildcats had a tough night hitting, but managed to pull up 19 blocks and 83 digs as a team. Northwestern sophomore libero Kate Nobilio led the team with 26 digs in that game and currently ranks second in the Big Ten with 5.67 per game.
But the Badgers have plenty of reasons to be confident going into this weekend. The team currently ranks either second or third in the conference in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills, and blocks.
On the offensive side of the net, Wisconsin is led by sophomore outside hitter Brittney Dolgner with 4.76 kills per game, good for second best among all hitters in the conference.
Defensively, senior middle blocker Taylor Reineke is coming off of a career weekend in which she tallied 20 blocks and moved into second place on the UW's all-time block list with 624. Senior libero Jocelyn Wack also hit a milestone of her own last weekend by surpassing the 2,000 dig mark with 26 against Purdue.
""For the seniors, it really shows that they have put in their time and have been starting since their freshman year, so they're going to be setting some career and program records for us, which is great,"" Waite said. ""The exciting part is that almost every weekend different players, including the young ones, are setting some personal bests; whether it's on defense, blocking [or] attacking percentages.""
Two wins this weekend will keep the Badgers in the hunt for a Big Ten title, right behind No. 1 Penn State, the only team to defeat Wisconsin in conference play so far this season.
""In the Big Ten, every match is a battle and you can't overlook anyone but the biggest match that will make a difference is the Penn State match,"" said Waite. ""Obviously, with a team that is ranked higher than us, [it will be a big match].
