Wisconsin was handed its first Big Ten loss of the season, and it was a doozy. The Nebraska Cornhuskers swept the Badgers, and while sets one and three were close, overall it was all Nebraska. Wisconsin may have been able to give Nebraska fits at times, but never long enough for Wisconsin to really get a handle on the match. And now Wisconsin is trying to figure out what's next.
Well, Kelly Sheffield had an answer for that. He knows what's next, he said that now this team knows what the standard is and the effort, training, and connectivity it will take to get there. After the match, Sheffield told reporters, "I thought we played really well in spurts. What we did tonight would have been good enough to beat just about everybody in the country — just about. This was great for learning, that we can get back to work and we got this at the front of our heads. This is the standard."
The narrative has shifted for Wisconsin. They can no longer settle for just beating other teams; they need to find a way to climb their way up to the top of the rung and beat the best. And they need to find a way to do it even this year, with a ton of freshmen.
Wisconsin may have pushed Nebraska more than any other Big Ten team, but it wasn't nearly enough
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This young Badger team was able to see a team mostly filled with elite seniors at Nebraska and know what the cream of the crop looks like. It's not that Wisconsin doesn't have the potential to get there; it's that they now need to find a way to climb that mountain.
While the Cornhuskers were able to hold Wisconsin to a hitting percentage of .171 in the match, the Badgers actually broke the streak Nebraska was on of holding teams under .100 in hitting. While that's a small and silly pat on the back, it's still a reality that Sheffield can work with. The Badgers have hit better than any other Big Ten team against this elite Nebraska squad.
The biggest issue for Wisconsin is not being able to get the blocks going consistently. The Badgers only posted two blocks on the day, compared to the Cornhuskers nine. That's not going to slow down a Nebraska attack. There has to be much more pressure up front to get the Cornhuskers out of rhythm and off their pace.
What Nebraska did well and continues to do well all season is playing elite defense. It's hard to get anything down on Nebraska. Hitters remain frustrated all day with the Cornhusker defense and once again, Nebraska was digging out ball after ball.
Now, according to Sheffield, the standard has been shown; the learning is ahead. The good news for Wisconsin is that the schedule eases up a bit and gives Sheffield and his coaching staff time to implement and install some of these teaching points they learned from getting swept by Nebraska. On Wisconsin!
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