For the ninth straight year under head coach Pete Waite, the Wisconsin volleyball team is gearing up for a run into the NCAA tournament, which kicks off tonight in Gainesville, Florida.
Unlike most years, the No. 8 Badgers (17-3 Big Ten, 25-4 overall) have a number of factors working in their favor that should help them to once again reach the Final Four, a feat not accomplished by the UW since 2000.
They are on a three-match win streak in which they swept Ohio State, Iowa and Minnesota and established an improved serving and passing game.
I think that last week we showed that we're ready to take it another whole notch up,"" senior setter Jackie Simpson said.
""Being able to sweep the last three teams in three was really good for us. ""And I think a lot of that had to do with our serving. We have been serving at another level. [Sophomore outside hitter] Caity DuPont is bringing a fireball of topspin serve...The rest of us have just become more consistent with our serves.""
""I like where we are,"" Waite added. ""The last week to ten days, the team really picked it up. I think they realized that the [end of the] Big Ten season was near. They didn't like the level that they were playing, so they fought hard to correct things. They played really well last weekend and at Ohio State. The chemistry is there, the consistency is there. It's tourney time.""
More importantly, Wisconsin has earned home court advantage in the first four rounds of the tournament, should they progress that far.
The Badgers knew coming into this season that the NCAA had selected Madison as one of four regional sites for the 2007 tournament, but the outstanding overall record and a second place finish in the Big Ten conference gave Wisconsin the right to host during the first two rounds of the tournament as well.
Undoubtedly, fan support will play a major part in the team's success early on in the tournament, as Wisconsin has been drawing an average of 5,425 spectators per game - the second best attendance record in the country behind Hawaii.
""We had our fingers crossed that we would be hosting the first and second rounds,"" senior libero and team co-captain Jocelyn Wack said. ""We didn't quite know if we were going to be just because we were hosting regionals, but right when we heard that, everybody just screamed with joy.
""That's awesome, especially for us seniors, to be back in the Field House for sure that first and second round and just to be in front of our friends and family and fans.""
The Badgers' first competition of this year's post season will be on Friday night against Northern Iowa (22-10), a team Wisconsin swept in three games earlier this year at the BYU Molten Classic Tournament in Provo, Utah.
Though the Panthers started with nine losses in their first 18 matches of the year, they improved their play mid-season to go on a 10-match winning streak and eventually won the Missouri Valley Conference title for the eighth time in ten years.
Junior middle blocker Ashten Stelken has been the driving force for Northern Iowa, chalking up 3.56 kills and 1.62 blocks per game and averaging .352 hitting per game.
But Wisconsin features an offense with far more firepower than what the Panthers have to offer.
Senior middle blocker Taylor Reineke has been hitting .350 during Big Ten play while sophomore outside hitter Brittney Dolgner has been throwing down an average of 4.61 kills per game on the year.
The Badgers have six front row players with hitting percentages better than .230 in conference play and have been shutting down opposing offenses with 3.22 blocks per game, led by Reineke who has been stuffing an average of 1.55 every game.
""We are a bigger team, we run a little bit faster of an offense,"" Wack said. ""[Northern Iowa is] scrappy, and we knew that playing them this preseason. I think just our height advantage and our ball control defense [is better]. We've really been focusing on that all year and we've come leaps and bounds from preseason, so that would be something different that they haven't seen.""
Barring an upset from UNI, the Badgers will take on the winner of the Iowa State and No. 16 San Diego match, which will take place prior to the Wisconsin match in the UW Field House on Friday. Both teams are also familiar to the Badgers, as they defeated San Diego 3-1 in September of last year at the San Diego Invitational and beat Iowa State 3-0 in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Madison last December.
If Wisconsin continues to progress to the third and fourth rounds, they would probably face the likes of No. 7 California and No. 2 Nebraska in order to move on to the Final Four.
Nebraska, the No. 1 seed in the Madison regional, was the 2006 national champion and has two former AVCA National Players of the Year on their current squad in senior right side hitter Sara Pavan and senior outside hitter Christina Houghtelling.
While playing against former Wisconsin head coach John Cook and the defending national champion Cornhuskers is a looming reality for the Badgers, the team knows that it will not get very far unless it approaches the tournament one game at a time.
""Looking at the brackets overall, the top four No. 1 seeds are all strong teams,"" Simpson said. ""They bring a lot to the table and no matter who we were playing, we would have to play our absolute best in order to pull an upset. But, in saying that, you have to get there first, and that's what this tournament is all about. It's about taking it one game at a time, and I think our team has done a great job of looking at the season that way. And now coming into tournament time, we've even focused in on that even more, and right now, it's Northern Iowa.""
