Volleyball Ready for NCAA Regional
December 06, 2006 | Volleyball
It's now or never for the No. 10 Wisconsin volleyball team (26-6). The Badgers travel to Austin, Texas, this Friday for a match-up against No. 8 Texas in the round of 16 at the 2006 NCAA Championship. Match time is set for 7 p.m. on Friday in Gregory Gym on the University of Texas campus while No. 2 Stanford (27-3) will face No. 15 California (22-9) at 5 p.m. Free audio and video of the Texas vs. Wisconsin match will be available at s=&url_channel_id=52&change_well_id=1"> --> www.TexasSports.tv
'If we serve tough and keep them out of their offense, we've got a shot at defending and then transitioning back at them,' said UW Coach Pete Waite of his team's strategy this weekend. 'And each coach is going to be saying that the whole time. But these are big teams 'big, good blocking teams, so when they go head to head, it should be exciting."
After sweeping Notre Dame and Iowa State in the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament in the UW Field House last weekend, Wisconsin makes its third-straight appearance in the Sweet 16. The Badgers are 28-14 overall in championship competition and advanced to the Elite Eight the last two seasons before bowing out to the eventual national champions. (Washington in 2004 and Stanford in 2005)
The Badgers hope for a similar fate this season and match up against a familiar Longhorns squad. Texas came into the UW Field House back in August for the AVCA Showcase and swept Wisconsin in both teams' first match of the season. Senior Maria Carlini had 14 kills for the Badgers as the Longhorns finished with three players in double-digit kills. Since then though, the Badgers are a much different team with two different starters and are currently playing some of their best volleyball of the season.
Despite the loss to Texas, Waite knows how valuable that first match was and believes his team's composition, with the addition of kill leader Brittney Dolgner and senior Amy Bladow into the starting lineup, makes them a better match-up against the Longhorns.
'The tape we'll watch is our first match with them,' Waite said. 'So we'll see just how we did. And actually I think when our players see that, they'll see they didn't play very well and that usually motivates them to come out even stronger, knowing that they've improved a lot since them.
'Audra Jeffers is much stronger. She was probably at 75 percent when we first played. She was just coming off that back injury. And we've nursed that all year and she's now, I would say, at 95 to 98 percent. And to have her on the court at all is great ' So even (Texas') coach knows we're a much different team now. He said that in his press release. He's followed us, knowing that this could be another rematch.'
The Longhorns entered the tournament as the second seed in the regional and seventh seed in the overall championship after finishing third in the Big 12 Conference. Texas opened up tournament play with two sweeps at home over Prairie View A&M and Stephen F. Austin.
With three starters standing 6-3 or taller, two of which are freshmen, the Longhorns again will use tremendous height against the UW. Freshmen Ashley Engle (6-3) currently leads Texas with 3.97 kills while Destinee Hooker (6-4) chips in 3.49 kills per game. The height won't phase the Badgers though as Waite thinks the Longhorns are comparable to another Big Ten Conference team.
'I think they're probably still the tallest team we've played, but they're very close to Penn State,' explains Waite. 'Obviously, in our conference, we split with Penn State and were able to take them the second time we played them and adjust after we got used to what they do ' So it's different angles that they bring the ball with than you're used to, so you do have to adjust your block, adjust your defense. And I think we are just a much better team than we were the first time we faced them and we're healthier now. '
If the Badgers pull out the regional semifinal win, they advance to the Elite Eight Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and will face the winner of the Stanford vs. California match. Wisconsin is also familiar with both teams as they swept Cal in the second round of NCAA play last year at the UW Field House and bowed out of the 2005 tournament to Stanford.
'We'll try to get by Friday night and then we've got our work cut out for us on Saturday night too,' Waite said.
