Wisconsin thumps Butler to win Air Force Invite

[wiscvball]

Scores are 30-16, 30-18, 30-10

Wisconsin hits .394 as a team, holds Butler to .000.
12 blocks to 3, 56 digs to 36, 51 kills to 26.

Shaw leads Wisconsin with 11 kills, hitting .438 and 4 blocks.

Reineke adds 9 kills, hitting .562 with 3 blocks - she only had 1 error in this tournament with 28 kills! Hit over .600 for the tourney.

Wack adds 18 digs, only gets aced once (the only Butler ace)

Meierotto with 9 kills, hitting .400

Audra Jeffers - hero of the last two matches, has a quiet match, 3 kills, hitting .273, 1 block, 6 digs. She was probably subbed out for Bladow early on. Bladow had 4 kills on 7 swings with 0 errors (.571)

Butler was led by Susana Henry with 11 kills, on .143%,4 digs.

Next weekend, Badgers travel to Montana State. Not a real exciting field, but Missouri is playing in the tourney as well.

[bomber]

I suspected that Reinecke would be be a bigger offensive contributor this year, especially after watching her play this spring. But Jeffers has been a great surprise so far. She more than replaces the offensive firepower missing from the loss of Odenthal.

Badger block looks at least as good as it was last year. It's waay early, and the level of competition will rise, but this could get interesting!!!

Congrats to both of these girls for making this All-tournament team. Not a bad way for Jeffers to start her career.

[808]

wiscvball said:

Wack adds 18 digs, only gets aced once (the only Butler ace)

LOL! Why did you state it that way? Does she have a tendency to get aced?

[bucky415]

In response to the previous post, Wack had nine reception errors in the two matches on friday, which is not a reflection of her usual performance. She is usually very steady; you don't necessarily tend to notice her, which isn't always a bad thing for a libero. Waite said that the lighting in the gym where they played (not the main gym at the AFA) made the ball difficult to pick up on serve receive.

Anyway, from what I saw in their scrimmage, I think this Badger team should be the best since 2001. All five starters are legitimate offensive threats. Simpson looked confident running the offense, and Lorenzen was solid as well. The team is big, pretty deep, and athletic; the starters should benefit from playing against some pretty good competition in practice from the bench players. Also, the back row defense looked improved.

The match with Mizzou next weekend could be a good one. All the Tigers' starting hitters had at least ten kills in their sweep of Tennessee in Columbia yesterday. Thus, the Badgers will need to serve tough and play well on defense to slow down that attack. On the other hand, the Badgers can throw the same type of balanced attack back at them if their passing is good. It should be a good match. Too bad about 92 people will see it because it is in Bozeman, Montana, of all places. I wonder if the Badgers are leaving tomorrow to make the probably five flights needed to get there. Oh well.

Final stats for the weekend: Badgers hit .333 to .069 for their opponents, 3.89 blocks per game to 1.89. 17 aces and 17 service errors (woo-hoo!). Unfortunately, the opposition had the same ratio (18 and 18)

Reineke had 3.11 kpg and 1.56 bpg while hitting .628.
Jeffers had 3.86 kpg and .71 bpg, hitting .411.
Simpson had nine kills, 12.57 apg, 2.29 dpg, and 1.43 bpg.
Shaw had 2.67 kpg at a .275 clip but had 2 blocks per game.
Meierotto had .267 kpg and hit .273.
Carlini had 2.89 kpg and hit only .155 (skewed by the match in which she hit negative), but had 2.78 digs per game.
Lorenzen and Bladow both played pretty well off the bench.
Mills, Berkley, and McCormack all played some back row rotations.
Maya Carroll got in two games and is hitting 1.000 (2 for 2).

Anyway, it was good that the Badgers were able to get the sweeps and everyone some playing time, but the competition will get a lot tougher. Still, they shut down their opponents this weekend for the most part and ran a balanced offense, which should be difficult to stop.