Frustrated UW can clinch Big Ten volleyball title
MADISON – Their anticipated trip to Penn State, scrubbed before they were able to board the plane at Dane County Regional Airport, illustrated the cycle of frustration Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield and his players can’t seem to escape.
“It was a frustrating thing last week to be sitting in the airport for two hours just waiting to see if it was going to be canceled,” Sheffield said this week. “The players were sitting on a bus, until they decided to stop sitting on a bus and went out in the parking lot and did a bunch of TikTok videos. You can only do that for so long. Even that gets old I hear.”
The March 26 and 27 matches were canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the Penn State program and the UW players and coaches reluctantly returned to campus.
The cancellation marked the fifth consecutive week UW’s schedule had been disrupted by COVID-19. The result is that top-ranked UW (11-0) has played one match in the last five-plus weeks.
Four days after completing a sweep at Michigan State on Feb. 21, UW officials announced a two-week pause because of positive COVID-19 tests. That announcement came after Michigan State officials discovered positive tests in the volleyball and gymnastics programs.
UW’s matches with Nebraska (Feb. 26 and 27) and Iowa (March 5 and 6) were postponed. The matches against Northwestern on March 12 and 13 were canceled because of issues within the Wildcats’ program.
Then UW played just one of two matches at Minnesota because of concerns within the Gophers’ program.
“One of the fortunate things is I feel like we’ve got a lot of depth and our practices have been really good,” Sheffield said. “Shoot! We’ve been doing that since August. You know?
“It’s a really long time to stay locked in and just playing against your teammates all the time.”
UW’s final regular-season matches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Friday against visiting Michigan (4-7). The Badgers can clinch their second consecutive Big Ten regular-season title and seventh overall by winning just one match against Michigan.
“We’re pretty stoked about the opportunity to be able to do that,” Sheffield said. “That is one of the big goals.
“We haven’t played a whole lot of matches recently . ... It would certainly be nice to have these matches, I think for almost anybody’s sanity. It’s a frustrating thing.”
The NCAA tournament field, reduced to 48 teams from 64 this season, is set to be revealed at 3 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU.
UW should be seeded No. 1 overall for the tournament, which is to be played in Omaha, Nebraska, this year. The first round is set for April 14.
Even if UW and Michigan play twice this week, the Badgers will have played three matches in a span of 51 days when NCAA tournament opens.
“Is it critical that we play this weekend or else we’re going to have a tough NCAA tournament?” Sheffield said. “I don’t know that I necessarily believe that. But it would certainly help to be playing some good competition.”
Sheffield noted that the two-week pause affected the conditioning of all the players, even those who did not test positive.
“When we got back, everybody was off between one and three inches on their vertical,” he said. “That is pretty significant.
“It clearly affected us from a strength standpoint, an explosiveness standpoint. Our numbers are just now starting to get to where they were.”