Badgers Meet Irish in Sweet 16
December 08, 2005 | Volleyball
The 11th-seeded Wisconsin volleyball team will make its second consecutive NCAA Sweet 16 appearance against sixth-seeded Notre Dame Friday at 5 p.m. in G. Rollie White Coliseum in College Station, Texas.
Third-ranked Washington (28-1) will take on 16th-ranked Purdue (25-8) in the second semifinal at 7 p.m. on Friday. The semifinal winners will meet in the regional final on Saturday at 5 p.m. for the right to advance to the NCAA championship on Dec. 15 and 17 in San Antonio, Texas.
The 12th-ranked Badgers (25-6) have won six straight matches including a pair of sweeps in the first two rounds of the tournament, defeating Loyola Chicago and 16th-ranked California in the UW Field House.
The 11th-ranked Fighting Irish (29-3) earned its highest tournament seed in school history after winning six of the regular-season's last seven matches. The Irish hosted the first and second rounds as well, edging Atlantic-10 champion Dayton in a five-game match in the first round. Notre Dame rebounded to sweep the Big Ten Conference's Northwestern in the second round in three closely fought games.
The Badgers have met the Irish six times in program history, earning five wins. The most recent meeting was in the second round of last season's NCAA tournament where Wisconsin defeated Notre Dame 3-0 in Madison.
'From when we played them last year here in the NCAA tournament, it's a lot of the same players, but they've changed their system around a little bit. They've moved some players in positions,' said UW Coach Pete Waite of Notre Dame. 'When we played them last year, they were a bigger team than we were and they were at times hitting over our block, which doesn 't happen very often. But I thought we were a better ball-handling team at the time. That's one thing that they've solidified. They've brought in some people to improve their defense.'
Like the Badgers, the Fighting Irish are one of the top blocking teams in the nation. Notre Dame ranks fourth with 3.61 blocks per game while Wisconsin is seventh 3.51 blocks per game. All-Big Ten Conference middle blocker Taylor Reineke leads the UW and ranks seventh nationally with 1.68 blocks per game. Notre Dame All-American Lauren Brewster ranks 10th nationally with 1.61 blocks per game. The Badgers' Sheila Shaw also ranks among the top blockers in the nation, averaging 1.52 blocks per game to rank 21st.
Wisconsin is looking for a repeat of last year's appearance in the NCAA Regional final. In 2004, the Badgers upset second-ranked Hawai'i, 3-2, in the regional semifinals. Wisconsin fell to eventual national champion Stanford in the Elite Eight round.
'I think it really started last year in the second round when we played Notre Dame,' explained Waite of the Badgers' success this season. 'We were actually down 23-29 and came back to beat them 36-34. That 's a huge comeback in rally scoring, to be at game point and to come back that far. That gave our team a lot of confidence.
'Then they obviously went up and caught Hawai'i in Green Bay. So we've been building on that, and that was a young team we did that with. There were five freshmen on the court, a couple off the bench. Now as sophomores, they've gained that extra year of experience.'
In 2004, Wisconsin was starting three freshmen and one sophomore. Now with two seniors, one junior, three sophomores and one redshirt freshman in the starting lineup, the Badgers have built on that experience all season long.
' ' (our players) have the confidence they can make it to the next round and they want to continue past that,' said Waite of his team 's regional chances. 'As the brackets go and how they look across the country, I like where we're sitting and I like our possibilities.'
