UWBadgers.com is looking back at Wisconsin Athletics' 1999-2000 season. Follow along throughout this year as we revisit this unheralded dream season for the Badgers.
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Lizzy Stemke looks back on one of the most successful years in the history of Wisconsin Athletics through a smudged lens.
Wherever you turned in 1999-2000 it seemed as though the Badgers were having an epic moment.
A Heisman Trophy here, a Rose Bowl win there.
An NCAA Final Four here, a MacNaughton Cup there.
A new sport introduced here, a Big Ten Conference and national individual champion crowned there.
Stemke and the rest of her Wisconsin volleyball teammates would have their day in the spotlight, but it came a year later after some awkward growing pains.
The Badgers won 30 matches — 12 of 17 vs. ranked foes — finished second in the Big Ten and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight in 1998. Great things were expected in '99, especially since the roster included a future University of Wisconsin Hall of Fame setter in Fitzgerald and six of the top 10 kill artists in school history.
Lizzy Fitzgerald setting the ball during the 1999 season
But John Cook stepped down after seven seasons as coach to take over the program at powerhouse Nebraska. Wisconsin turned to a successful native son, Monona Grove High School product Pete Waite, to oversee the Badgers.
"It was the big transition," Stemke said. "New coaching staff. New culture. New drills. New routines. Any time there's a coaching change, that happens. The regime of John Cook to Pete Waite and those staffs was very different."
Roles and voices changed, too. So did perceptions and judgements. Stemke — the former Lizzy Fitzgerald married Kevin Stemke, an award-winning punter for the UW football team — likened the experience to a youngster having a growth spurt and having to regain their balance and coordination.
"It was that kind of transition from top to bottom," she said.
Wisconsin lost its season-opener at UW-Milwaukee and its Big Ten opener at Minnesota. It faced eight ranked opponents, going 3-5. Four of those setbacks came vs. top-10 teams.
The Badgers finished 22-10 overall, 14-6 in the Big Ten, good for third place. They qualified for the NCAA tournament, but fell to Brigham Young in the second round.
That '99 lineup included a future first-team All-American in Sherisa Livingston, second-teamers Stemke, Jenny Maastricht and Kelly Kennedy and a third-teamer in Morgan Shields.
Sherisa Livingston
Livingston is the all-time kills leader at UW followed by Kennedy at No. 6, Sheila Shaw at No. 8, Erin Byrd at No. 9 and Maastricht at No. 10.
"I would consider it a giant year of big, awkward transition," said Stemke, who lived that experience as coach at Georgia from 2010 to '16 before becoming a volleyball analyst for ESPN.
Kennedy was a senior in 1999, but the rest of that core group returned for a memorable season in 2000. The Badgers won 33 of 37 matches, reigned as Big Ten champions and advanced to their first NCAA title match.
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Kelly Kennedy
Stemke said Waite was still making lineup adjustments early that season, but soon came a sense of flow. She compared the team to a house whose foundation was strong, but needed some mortar here and there to touch up some cracks.
"Going into to 2000, it allowed for the big changes, the big transitions, to have settled," she said.
Wisconsin got a big boost in its Big Ten opener, sweeping third-ranked Penn State, which had advanced to the NCAA title match in '99. That was part of a 14-1 start and a lot of momentum.
"We spent a lot of time together and had a real respect, like a family," Stemke said. "We were really tight."
Lizzy Fitzgerald (2), Lori Rittenhouse (11) and Jamie Gardner (5) of the 2000 Wisconsin volleyball team celebrating a play during the NCAA final
According to Stemke, the thought of contending for a national championship didn't materialize until the Badgers were deep into their NCAA tournament run.
"We never really talked about that," she said. "We were a tight-knit group that was focusing on each and every match before us.
"I don't think we thought about it until we beat UCLA in the Elite Eight. Then we were like, 'Hey, this is getting real.'"
Stemke recalled that Shields, a setter, would draw caricatures of opponents on a white board in the locker room and that was always the focus.
"We just weren't talking about national championships and Final Fours along the way," Stemke said.
As far as that Elite Eight match with UCLA at the UW Field House, Wisconsin prevailed despite many in the home locker room battling the flu, including Stemke.
After dispatching with second-ranked USC in the semis, a heavy dose of irony came to life for the Badgers. They faced Nebraska in the title match and lost in five sets, giving Cook his first NCAA championship. Two of his former players, Stemke and Livingston, were named to the all-tournament team.
Twenty years later, one thing has never changed for Stemke when it comes to the Badgers.
"I love talking about that team," she said.
