The Badgers (5-1) passed their first big road test of the season and bounced back from a rough open- ing weekend, sweeping No. 18 North Carolina and beating Louisville 3-1 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge last weekend in Louisville, Ky.
“It was a lot better weekend I think with how we played this past weekend compared to our opening weekend,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said at a Monday press conference. “I thought we were a lot grittier, some- thing we talked a lot about through the course of the week leading up to the weekend.”
Last weekend’s win not only showed off UW’s physical play, it gave Wisconsin much needed confidence going forward this season.
“To sweep a team like North Carolina, I think at this point in the season, I think that was a big win for us,” Sheffield said. “And to beat a Louisville team that really has a chance of being a special team in four the following night.”
In this weekend’s matchup, Wisconsin will host the Badger Classic, featuring Georgia (4-3), Georgetown (2-4) and Kent State (4-3), at the UW Field House. All three teams have former Badger
players as coaches, which will make for an exciting reunion for UW.
“We wanted this to be an all- Badger affair,” said Sheffield. “We thought it would be great for the fans and thought it would be great for those guys to come back and celebrate with each other. There’s a lot of former Badgers that are coaching.”
Among the Wisconsin alums are Georgia head coach Lizzy(Fitzgerald) Stemke and assistant coach Colleen (Neels) Bayer, Georgetown head coach Arlisa (Hagan) Williams and Kent State assistant coach Kim Kuzma. The Classic welcomes back 60 former UW players and coach- es and will honor the 1990 Big Ten Championship Team, as well as the 2000 Big Ten Championship and NCAA runner-up team.
As for this weekend’s matchups, UW will face a physical Georgia team led by Stemke and will then take another good team in Kent State.
“Georgia kind of looks like some of the stuff that I was watching film on our team a week and a half ago,” Sheffield said. “But they are a team that I think she probably feels really good going forward.”
“Kent State has had some good wins. It’s a gritty team. ”
UW will play Georgia Thursday at 7 p.m. and then Kent State Friday at 7:30 p.m.
