Wisconsin lost its first home match of the year against the No. 21 Washington Huskies. A match that Wisconsin had plenty of chances to win but couldn't quite find the way to finish. The Washington defense was relentless and seemed to win every long rally. The block was really good against the Wisconsin pins, and yet the Badgers couldn't find a way to block Simona Mateska, who had 31 kills on the evening.
Kelly Sheffield was pretty frustrated after the match, but with a touch of hope in his voice. "Tonight, we got beat by a team that just got us by a couple of points here and played great," Sheffield said. According to Sheffield, the thing that drove him crazy was the "taking the foot off the gas." He said that in set two they had it all wrapped up, "You're up 24-21, and you have an opportunity to go up on a team two, and we let our foot off the gas and now we're one and one."
That foot-off-the-gas feeling was a real problem. Kristen Simon said it was a lack of mental toughness. She told reporters that the goal going forward needs to be "Being able to stay mentally strong throughout all five sets and not letting teams come back."
Kelly Sheffield and Kristen Simon want to see better mental toughness from the Badgers
Related: 4 thoughts from Wisconsin volleyball's 5 set home loss to No. 21 Washington
Sheffield pointed to the fifth set as an example of what he and Simon are pointing at: "We got ourselves back in the fifth set. It was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and then we made three errors in a row to end it, and you just can't be doing that."
Nothing says a dip in mental toughness like three errors back to back to back to give another team the victory. First, it was a ball that was played "four feet out of bounds," Sheffield said. Then it was a serve straight into the net, followed by an ace by the Huskies, which the Badgers returned with an error.
It was a frustrating way to end the game, and it is now a frustrating point in the season at which the Badgers have to find a way to rebound. They also probably kissed a chance at a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament goodbye with that loss. They were already sneaking in with five losses, and now they have six.
The Huskies get a lot of credit for being able to wear down the young Badgers team and stay relentless in their attack. However, the frustration for fans, and most likely Kelly Sheffield, was the errors caused by his veterans. In fact, those are the ones that stick out more than anything the freshmen did.
The ball that was out of bounds was played by Eva Travis, who had a pretty forgettable game in other ways too. Jaela Auguste had multiple under-the-net violations, and Charlie Fuerbringer served the ball into the net in that run of three errors in a row. So, it's not just the youthfulness that's costing the Badgers right now; it's a team effort. All of the Badgers need to grow in mental toughness and resiliency on defense.
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