The Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team took their show on the road this week all the way to the city of Angels in Southern California. They just finished beating USC 3-1 and will now take on UCLA in a couple of days. The USC match shouldn't have been as hard as it was, but the Badgers continue to show that there are a few problems that stand in the way of sweeping teams.
Kelly Sheffield needs to figure out how to tap into the ceiling of this team, because it remains dramatically high, but the USC match was another reminder of the pesky problems standing in the way.
1. The middle set lulls
Wisconsin has an absolute problem with set two and often even set three. Something about those middle sets seems to really lull this young Badger team to sleep. The match against USC was another case study in this exact thing.
Wisconsin won the first set 25-17. While it wasn't perfect, they cruised through it with 23 kills on 25 points (a wild stat). However, set two came along, and it became a battle. Wisconsin ultimately won 26-24. The Badgers needed a run at the end to actually catch up and finally pass the Trojans for the victory.
You'd think that would have woken them up a little, but then Wisconsin decided to just lose the third set 25-22. The Badgers hit .133 in that frame... yuck. Of course, the Badgers would go on to win the match, but what is happening in set two (and sometimes three)? It's becoming a consistent problem.
2. The defense is still not very good for Wisconsin
The Badgers really need to step up the defense. As the season progressed, there was real hope that these young players would really start to figure it out, but it's slower than we thought. The block isn't consistently there, the digs are sometimes misplayed, and even some of the passing needs to be honed in more.
If Wisconsin wants to go deep, there has to be a better block, at least. The back row is being forced into way too much work without an effective block. This doesn't mean they aren't blocking at all, but it's still a weakness overall.
3. The need for a killer instinct
The other thing that has to drive Kelly Sheffield crazy is that this team has yet to develop that killer instinct. It seems as if the freshmen are looking to the veterans for that, but it simply isn't there. Jaela Auguste has shown glimpses of it, and maybe Grace Egan will be the one to bring it. But honestly, it may need to come from the young hitters.
This Mimi Colyer, Carter Booth, tenacity to simply take over sets and bury the opponent. That's what, so far, is missing. Right now, the Badgers feel like a really talented team that likes to play with their food, and then sometimes it goes cold before they can actually eat. That's not ideal.
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