The No. 5 Badgers (9-1) start Big Ten play Wednesday the way their season ended last year, when they welcome the defending national champion and third ranked Penn State Nittany Lions (12-1) to the UW Field House.
However, while everyone around them seems to be building this game up as an great opportunity for the Badgers to avenge their loss in the championship last year, the team seems excited just to start Big Ten Play.
“Yeah, pre-season is great and we got to play great opponents but at the same time there’s nothing like Big Ten play,” sophomore setter Lauren Carlini said.
For fans though, this game could not get much more exciting. Even though the Badgers went 0-3 against the Nittany Lions last year, most notably losing 3-1 in the national championship, the team is off to one of its best starts ever and seems more than ready to take on Penn State.
A lot of this can be attributed to the Badgers competition this past weekend in the Pac-12/Big Ten Showcase in Seattle, Washington. Wisconsin played two Top 10 opponents in No. 9 Southern California (7-3) and No. 4 Washington (11-0). Despite splitting the games 1-1, losing 3-2 to Washington in their last game of the tournament, the Badgers know the lessons learned are immeasurable.
“We did lose to Washington, but there’s things that came out of that, that we needed to learn that would have been overlooked if we had won that game,” Carlini said. “When we get in situations a the end of the year with close sets and fifth sets were going to have the advantage because we’ve gone through that.”
Penn State is also off to a strong start. The Nittany Lions’ lone loss came on the road to No. 1 Stanford. However, just like the Badgers against the Huskies, Penn State kept it close until Stanford pulled away to win the fifth and decisive set 15-10.
Following the loss, Penn State has been lights out, going 9-0 while only giving up two sets. Most recently, they swept all four teams in their home tournament, the Penn. State Alumni Classic in University Park, Pennsylvania.
No matter how good Penn State looks coming in, head coach Kelly Sheffield knows his team won’t get wrapped up in the moment.
“What we try to do is to treat every match the same and prep the same way,” Sheffield said. “My experience has been, when you don’t go about it that way that’s when the emotions get out of control and you ride the rollercoaster of a season.”
It almost seems like Sheffield and his players can read each others minds. There is no doubting that he has them fully invested in the process of the season and believing nothing else matters besides what is going on in their locker room.
When asked about being picked to finish third in the Big Ten this year, Carlini barely batted an eye.
“We don’t really worry about rankings. We worry about getting better, worry about where we want to be at the end of the year and the game ahead of us,” Carlini said. “I mean hey if people think we’re going to end up three, were thinking two spots higher,” she said with a smile.
Whether you read into the downplay coming from the Badger locker room or the hype up from the media more, there is no denying that there couldn’t be a much better way for Badger fans to see their team open Big Ten play than the game on Wednesday.
