If you asked the average Wisconsin volleyball fan where the Badgers can grow and why they've lost a few Big Ten matches now (Washington, Nebraska, Penn State), the answers would vary. Many would point to serve-receive or blocking, maybe even defensive issues. Often the easiest answer is the youth of this team.
Kelly Sheffield may agree with those fans on a bunch of those concerns; however, after Penn State, he noticed something bigger. The stats even proved his point, as many fans and reporters were pointing out passing as the primary problem.
Sheffield says that the passing certainly needs to be better and that Audrey Flanagan had a tough day against Penn State. However, he said that the advanced stats point to the reality that Wisconsin actually was hitting 200 points better after passes than Penn State. That wasn't the reason they lost; according to Sheffield, it was that the Nittany Lions outhit them in transition.
"When you are taking a deep dive, that wasn't a major issue," Sheffield said. "Our passing was a little worse than theirs but not by a lot. We outhit them by .200 in FBSO (First Ball Side Out). The issue was transition; they outhit us by .300 (almost .300). That's a pretty big number."
Wisconsin has to be better in transition opportunities and Penn State took advantage
Now, if you are confused by all this, in volleyball, the passing is after the serve, and the transition is what happens after the attack to flip the script. In other words, Wisconsin was neck-and-neck with Penn State in the serve-receive and that version of passing. However, after the attack- essentially, when a rally would begin- Wisconsin fell off the track.
Sheffield clarified, though, that it happened mostly in two rotations. He said there were four rotations that actually did better than Penn State. There's certainly room for improvement, and he's working with players to get there, but it's not the passing as much that he's worried about; it's the transition.
This was also the major issue that Wisconsin had against Nebraska. The transition attack for the Cornhuskers outplayed the Badgers all match. Wisconsin was hanging, but Nebraska continued to wear the Badgers down over and over throughout rallies and in transition.
Of course, Wisconsin could improve on the other issues that fans are bringing up, but what is frustrating Sheffield is that second or third attack in a set and continuing to keep rallies alive and find the point. When Wisconsin has done this well, Sheffield has sung the praises of his team; when they've failed at it, he's pointed it out pretty quickly.
It is one of the hard parts of having a younger team. Transition is one of the last components to adjust to for a freshman. At no volleyball level until this top-tier D1 level have they experienced teams that can transition like this. Club tournaments, high school volleyball - none of that has the same sort of explosive ability to turn around attacks like elite college volleyball teams.
Which is why teams are targeting the freshmen in both serve-receive and in these transition moments. They know that is where they can get Wisconsin, and the best teams have found the cracks in the armor, and now Sheffield is trying to repair them quickly ahead of the Big Ten Tournament.
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