Wisconsin volleyball suffered its first loss of the season against the No. 5-ranked Texas Longhorns in the Opening Spike Classic. It started as a back-and-forth affair but ended in a Longhorns sweep. Kelly Sheffield said the locker room was full of irritated players ready to bounce back and find a way to prevent it from happening again. Ultimately, Sheffield referred to the game as an opportunity for growth, "that's a match that's going to do a lot of good for us."
The schedule was initially set up to be hard. They battled against the No. 14th-ranked Kansas a couple of days before this top-five matchup. The Badgers came out on top over the Jayhawks, but ultimately didn't have the togetherness to weather the storm that the Longhorns brought on the court on Sunday.
Kelly Sheffield didn't shy away from tough non-conference opponents for Wisconsin
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"Those are the things you are looking for in the non-conference. I want to see what we have and what we've got to get better at." Sheffield said in his post-game press conference. What are some of those things? He mentioned a variety of things that he noticed: service errors, togetherness, and not pressing (especially the hitters).
Last season in the non-conference, the Badgers started the season 0-3 with losses to No. 6 Louisville, No. 1 Texas, and No. 5 Stanford. It looked bleak, but those games helped Sheffield prepare his team for what was to come. Wisconsin then won the next six non-conference games.
Ultimately, the season ended up being a solid season for the Badgers, while it wasn't quite up to the expectations that Sheffield has for the program or even the program has for itself. The early losses didn't bury the team, but instead prepared Wisconsin for playoff volleyball.