Football
Head coach Gary Andersen is proud of the Badger’s success against Iowa last weekend, where the two teams put together a defensive battle for the ages. UW (4-1 Big Ten, 6-2) found a way to hold the Buckeyes to just three field goals without senior linebacker Chris Borland, the heart and soul of UW’s defense.
“Our kids were unbelievable,” Andersen said in a press conference Monday. “They faced a lot of adversity prior to the game, they faced a lot of adversity during the game and they kept on battling and fighting and found a way to get the victory at the end.”
Andersen also gave credit to senior running back James White who he named the Offensive Player of the Game for his “toughness and his want to and being able to make the plays when they came late in that game.”
Wisconsin is now focusing on its contest against Brigham Young this weekend. According to Andersen, BYU employs a fast-paced strategy similar to Arizona State, a team to whom the Badgers lost several weeks ago after an officiating blunder on the last play took away UW’s chance to kick the game winning field goal.
The Badgers’ tough defense, which led the way to a 28-9 victory in Iowa, look forward to the challenge they will face this weekend and the atmosphere back home at Camp Randall.
“It’s the tradition and the support and knowing that you’re coming out of that tunnel with 80,000 plus people screaming and cheering for you,” Andersen said. “It gives you a definite advantage.”
BYU’s talented defense will be another rigorous challenge, but Andersen noted the Cougars’ strengths are countered by some shortcomings and disadvantages they will face at Camp Randall this Saturday.
“The key is to not get worn out. You watch the teams they play, they get physically tired and BYU does a lot of great plays. And there are a lot of missed tackles,” Andersen said. “It gets loud and it’s hard for [BYU] to be able to get the communication that they normally get from the snap count, to get personnel on the field, to the communication that verbally has to take place.”
Andersen couldn’t give a definitive comment about the current playing status of Tyler Dippel, who is out of state due to a family-related situation.
Volleyball
The Wisconsin volleyball team (7-5, 18-6) is currently ranked fourth in the Big Ten and returns home for a series of matches against Nebraska and Iowa at home this weekend.
The volleyball team’s close loss to Purdue came at the end of a busy weekend in which the Badgers played in over five hours of matches.
“It wasn’t always the prettiest volleyball, but it was two teams playing everything out on the court,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I thought Purdue played really well. Their libero, Carly Cramer, man, she’s probably about as tough as they come.”
UW is in a position to be a seeded team entering the postseason, and in the approaching back-to-back weekends at home they will continue to face tough teams. Sheffield thinks, however, the communication between junior middle blocker Dominique Thompson, freshman setter Lauren Carlini and freshman middle blocker Haleigh Nelson has become stronger since the beginning of the season.
“I think we’ve cleaned up some of our serving, I think we’re aggressive without missing as much,” Sheffield said. “I think there are a lot of areas we’ve gotten better. Plus you throw in the health and we’re getting a lot healthier.”
Women’s Basketball
The Badgers won the first of a pair of exhibition games Sunday against Winona State and will face Steven’s Point Thursday in another exhibition game. The regular season starts on Nov. 10.
“I was pleased with the kids, the way they came out and really jumped on Winona State,” head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. “When we do the things we’re supposed to do and take advantage of our size, I think that’s what really pushed us forward in the game.”
Kelsey also mentioned that fans of the team should be excited about the Badgers’ depth this season, returning a lot of players who contributed to a team that led the Big Ten in turnovers last year.
“We returned a lot of scorers from last year. Obviously, Morgan Paige and Jacki Gulczynski led our team last year in scoring. Cassie Rochel is in that mix,” Kelsey said. “You also have Michala Johnson, who is a transfer that really showed [Sunday] why we all should be excited to watch her play.”
Several players will return from injury this season, including senior guard Taylor Wurtz, who will finish her college basketball career this year after returning from a back injury.
Junior guard AnnMarie Brown is also returning from an ACL injury. The jury is still out on senior center Cassie Rochel, who is still sitting out with back problems.
Kelsey noted the two things the team needs to maintain this year are its health and its ball control.
Because of the greater number of athletes this year, there will be more lineups than last season, when most of the weight fell on just two players.
“If we can stay healthy, that falls on the trainers and me listening to the strength coach and trainers, we can control our turnovers and [take] care of the ball,” Kelsey said.
