The Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team(12-7 overall, 1-7 Big Ten) is on the road this weekend, playing Iowa (6-11, 1-7) Friday night and No. 20 Minnesota (14-6, 4-4) Sunday afternoon. The Badgers look to carry their momentum from their first Big Ten conference victory against Purdue to rack up two more wins this weekend.
The Badgers breakthrough performance last weekend was an all-around effort. The offense was lead by freshman outside hitter Elise Walch and senior outside hitter Allison Wack. Wack recorded her second double-double of the season. A key contributor off the bench for the Badgers is freshman right-side hitter Julie Mikaelsen.
""It kind of sparked us and being a lefty, too, she makes a difference,"" UW head coach Pete Waite said of Mikaelsen. ""She's pretty hard to stop.""
Defensively, senior libero Kim Kuzma has stepped it up big this season. She has 1,355 digs in her four seasons as a Badger and only needs 42 more to move into third on the UW career list for digs. Freshman defensive specialist/outside hitter Annemarie Hickey has also had an impressive season as an all-around threat on the court. The big question is what lineup Waite will use in the upcoming matches, as the Badgers have switched from a 6-1 offense to a 6-2, and then back again to a 6-1 in the last weekend. This season, Wisconsin has used nine different lineups.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are tied for tenth place with the Badgers in the Big Ten standings. Key players that have helped the Hawkeyes this season are junior middle blocker Mallory Husz and senior middle blocker Becky Walters. Freshman libero Bethany Yeager has put up some impressive numbers so far this season with 4.53 digs per match.
The border battle Sunday against No. 20 Minnesota will be a competitive match, as the overall series between the two teams is 3-3. The Golden Gophers are coming off two losses this past weekend to Ohio State and Penn State. The outside hitter duo of sophomore Tabi Love and freshman Ashley Wittman will be something the Badgers are going to have to stop in order to get another Big Ten win.
