Wisconsin had moments of looking like they were going to go toe-to-toe with No. 1Nebraska last week, but it never materialized for long. The veteran-heavy Cornhusker team cruised to another Big Ten sweep and another victory over their volleyball rival, Wisconsin. Kelly Sheffield, in his press conference this week, spoke about what he expects to see from his team going forward.
Sheffield said that he's expecting a bounce back, "a response." There's no such thing as good losses or bad losses, but only good or bad responses. He wants to see his team respond and decide that not only can they work and practice their way to Nebraska's level, but surpass it. What does he want to see from his team going forward?
Well, the biggest thing is the process of learning that his players get to take on. They've seen the best team in the country and now get to go find it in themselves. "I get excited about watching film because there's going to be so much to learn," Sheffield said. Now, what are those three things:
1. A relentless pursuit of not letting the ball hit the floor
The first thing he noted was that Nebraska simply refuses to let the ball hit the floor. They never give up, and every player, minus the blockers up at the net, is flying around to dig balls. Sheffield wants to see more of that from his Badger team.
Remember that play that Kristen Simon made to make Sportscenter No. 1 play? She dove backward and somehow got the ball to go over the net and get a kill against Illinois. It was amazing; Sheffield loved it and said he loved that there were multiple bodies on the floor in that one play. But against Nebraska, that effort disappeared a bit. "Maybe it was because their attacking didn't allow that." Sheffield said, "But I think we had two times all match where we had multiple people on the floor; I think they had 12 times."
Sustaining the good throughout the match (not just in chunks)
The big difference between Nebraska and Wisconsin right now for Kelly Sheffield, besides the obvious youth versus experience, is the ability to sustain greatness throughout the match. "I love the direction that our team is going," Sheffield said. "I thought there were a lot of moments that we went toe-to-toe with them, and uh, but they were able to s sustain their good throughout the entire match, and our sustainability of good was in chunks."
The ceiling for this Wisconsin team is still incredibly high, and he's excited to see them reach it, but it will come down to the mental toughness to stay at that level of greatness throughout the course of a match.
Lean on your teammates when you are searching for solutions
The final thing that he hopes his team learned and is learning, but Nebraska helped reveal it, is that playing together is far better than playing by yourself. The reality of a great team like the Cornhuskers is that they don't let you ever get comfortable. Your best stuff is sometimes not good enough against them, and it causes a player to start to search for solutions.
Sheffield said that the tendency is to search internally, but he wants his team to learn to lean on each other. "You're in this, but you're not alone in this; you're with each other. Let's lean on each other."
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