Down but far from out, the Wisconsin volleyball team (6-8 Big Ten, 16-6 overall) will work on evening out its conference record this weekend, as they will be playing host to No. 15 Minnesota (10-4, 20-6) Friday and Iowa (5-9, 13-13) Sunday at the UW Field House.
Picking up two wins against opponents that them on the road would not only boost the Badgers' hopes of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament in December, but would also give them some much-needed momentum heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
[This weekend's matches] are important and they would certainly help us to get in [the NCAA tournament],"" UW head coach Pete Waite said. ""We've got two other weekends after that where we have opportunities, but every opportunity we get, we really want. The team is working really hard to improve every part of their game and to keep their error percentages down.""
Without question, Wisconsin's errors have been a major factor in the six losses suffered in the last four weeks. However, with five teams in the top-25 national rankings - including No. 1 Penn State, who has yet to lose a single set this year - the Badgers' struggle to tally wins in recent weeks is due just as much to the quality of their opponents as it is to the problems on their side of the net.
""The quality of play is definitely up in the Big Ten,"" Waite said. ""Coaches say that every year, and sometimes I just don't agree with them, because there have always been two, three, four teams in the conference that just were not that good. You could go in and not play a good game, and you could beat them. It's not that way anymore'¦there are a lot better teams in here right now than I have ever seen in 10 years.""
Iowa is one of the teams that has sat in the Big Ten cellar for much of the past decade, but under the direction of first-year head coach Sharon Dingman, Iowa has improved dramatically. The Hawkeyes' victory over then No. 18 Wisconsin in the first weekend of conference victory proved that they were turning a new leaf in the program.
Minnesota, on the other hand, has been a perennial power in the Big Ten and has continued to show prowess on the court this season. Sophomore outside hitter Brook Dieter and sophomore middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer have been stellar on the net, racking up a combined total of 635 kills on the year. They currently hold the sixth and 10th place rankings, respectively, on the conference kill list. Defensively, junior libero Christine Tan leads the Big Ten in digs with 5.11 per game, while Gibbemeyer has been putting up a remarkable 1.42 blocks per game.
But Wisconsin has changed their mentality at practice in recent weeks and is prepared to avenge their earlier losses to their border rivals.
""We all have [had] a new focus every day, a new sense of urgency, and a new commitment to getting better every day,"" sophomore setter Nikki Klingsporn said. ""We're trying to add new things every day into practice to help get us to that next level.""
Junior outside hitter Brittney Dolgner still ranks among the best in the Big Ten in kills per game with 3.35 per game and sophomore libero Kim Kuzma has been crucial to the Badgers' defense in conference play, averaging 4.43 digs per game since Wisconsin last played Minnesota in late September. And despite being on a downslide in recent weeks, the Badgers still believe they have enough fight in them to pull out a pair of wins this weekend.
""We know what our record is, and we're not trying to dwell on it, but we have [had] a couple of pretty tough matches we battled really hard [in],"" Dolgner said. ""Personally, I think that we'd rather lose in four playing really well than beating a team in three playing like crap. We've been battling and fighting really well and things are starting to click.
