Wisconsin (2-1) came into last weekend’s matchup against Western Kentucky ranked 5th in the country, but a season-opening loss to the Hilltoppers shocked UW and swiftly taught it to not take any opponent for granted.
“We're learning how hard you've got to play to be an elite team,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said at a press conference Monday. “I told them afterwards, there wasn't a loss that necessarily happened that day, that loss happened over the previous two weeks.”
As the Badgers prepare for this weekend’s upcoming ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Sheffield stressed the need for junior All-American Lauren Carlini to step up and lead.
“We're trying to encourage her to stop looking around, said Sheffield. “She likes to defer a little bit in the practice gym... but there's not a lot of older kids on this team anymore, so we're trying to get her to be confident in being able to communicate.”
UW rebounded and took back to back three-set victories against Colgate and College of Charleston Saturday to round out opening weekend. The No. 13 Badgers look to build on that momentum against No. 18 North Carolina and unranked Louisville in the opening rounds of the tournament in Louisville, Ky. this weekend.
The ACC is on the rise, and its leaders hope to make some noise against Big Ten juggernauts such as UW.
“The ACC might be the most improving conference in the country,” Sheffield said. “They've always had some teams that were pretty good. They've always had two, three teams that were around the top 25. The past couple years they've had two or three teams right around that top 10, top 15 – teams that are legitimate Final Four-caliber teams, North Carolina being one of them.”
Sheffield identified the tournament as an opportunity to prove the loss to Western Kentucky was merely a hiccup in what should be another successful season.
“This coming weekend we've got a heck of a challenge with a North Carolina team, one of the top programs in the country, and then Louisville, who we are expecting to be another elite team,” Sheffield said. “We have the first weekend under our belt, we got to learn quite a bit about where we're at and I thought we got stronger as the weekend went along.”
UW’s weekend begins with a matchup with the Tar Heels Friday at 3:30 p.m
