Wisconsin volleyball returns home for top 10 match against Minnesota

No. 5 Wisconsin will host No. 7 Minnesota in a rivalry match at UW Field House on Friday.

The Badgers are coming off their first regular season loss in almost two years. They fell in five sets to the Maryland Terrapins last week. But with Big Ten play just getting underway, Wisconsin has plenty of opportunities to make up for it.

“That’s one of the great things about our league, it forces you to move on quickly,” said head coach Kelly Sheffield.

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Every Big Ten team is capable of winning on any given day, he told reporters this week. Unranked Maryland played well on defense, and the Terrapins crowd was “foaming at the mouth,” Sheffield said.

Despite the loss, Sheffield said he was proud of how his team turned things around, beating Rutgers the following day.

Wisconsin reached the national semifinals last year, and while star players like Dana Rettke and Sydney Hilley returned for this season, the team also has a lot of young athletes. Many of them got their first taste of playing in front of Big Ten crowds last weekend, Sheffield said. And the team struggled with errors against Maryland.

“Our IQs were not the highest that evening,” he said. “But it’s one of the things I really appreciate about this league, is that you’ve got to move past that so quick because there’s another big dog that’s coming up right around the corner.”

Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield talks to Sydney Hilley (2) while waiting for a challenge during the second set against Texas in a semifinal in the NCAA women’s volleyball championships Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Omaha, Neb. *John Peterson/AP Photo*

The Badgers are set to face four consecutive ranked opponents later this month, including No. 4 Purdue.

“When you’ve got this quality of competition coming at you all the time, it forces you to focus,” he said.

This weekend, the Badgers will take on “a couple of heavyweights,” Sheffield said. In addition to Minnesota, Wisconsin will play Illinois in Urbana-Champaign on Sunday.

In Madison, the Gophers will be led by Stephanie Samedy, the reigning Big Ten player of the week. She’s “one of the elite college players our game has ever seen,” Sheffield said. But he’s expecting to see lots of support from the fans.

It’s been three weeks since the Badgers have played at the Field House, and it’s nice to be home, he said.

“The Field House is awesome, it’s special,” he said. “It’s one of the great places in the sport of volleyball to play, and we certainly cherish that.”