Wisconsin volleyball’s Carter Booth not discouraged after 0-3 start

Everyone on the University of Wisconsin volleyball team is aware of the optics.

That 0-3 record next to its name is unsightly. It can only lead to volleyball enthusiasts around the country wondering if the Badgers aren’t quite as good as everyone expected them to be this season.

The context is important. Even after losing at No. 4 Louisville and against No. 1 Texas on Sunday, the Badgers only dropped three spots to No. 6 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll that was released on Monday.

UW then faced another top team on Monday at the State Farm College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum. While there were certainly a litany of mistakes that the Badgers want to clean up, there wasn’t a lot of doom and gloom after No. 5 Stanford pulled away for a 26-24, 18-25, 25-22, 25-22 victory.

“First of all, nobody in our locker room is real happy that we’re 0-3 to start the season,” UW coach Kelly Sheffield said. “But each match we’ve gotten better.

“And as a coach, as a team, those are things that when you think about how long of a season those are the things that you are hunting. Can we continue to move on the right path?

“I thought that this tournament … heavyweights. We’ve seen three big-time teams. Today was another one of them. The fact that we hit .341 and lost a match is not something that happens very often.”

Here are more insights from the match:

Errors at end of sets rankle UW coach Kelly Sheffield

The biggest issue with the Badgers at this early point is struggling to put opponents away.

UW led in the first set, 24-21, but the Cardinal scored five straight points punctuated by a reception error by the Badgers’ Trinity Shadd-Ceres.

Stanford claimed the third set on a service error by UW’s Sarah Franklin.

The Cardinal took control in the fourth set with three straight aces by Jordyn Harvey for a 16-10 advantage. The Badgers rallied to get within 20-19, but couldn’t get over the hump.

“There’s connections and things that happen throughout the course of practice that we just haven’t done enough,” Sheffield said. “And when you’re playing against a team that is really, really good and is pressing you, some of those errors are going to happen.

“Here’s what I loved. We’ve seen plenty of teams coming back. We’ve done that to other people, others have done that to us. It’s one of the beauties of our game. No lead is too big. You’re even seeing that in long stretches at the Olympics.

“It’s going to happen to you. Just like you’re going to do the same thing to someone else. What I want to see is how do you respond in those situations? And I loved how we responded on a team that can really bring an avalanche of pressure on you. I thought we did a really good of responding.”

UW’s Carter Booth offers impassioned response to loss

UW middle blocker Carter Booth can see the improvements coming, too.

“The sky is not falling,” Booth said. “And we know that. We are all competitors and we know that it takes time.

“We haven’t had the time to do some of those things. To work some of these things out. I recently did an interview going into the Louisville match and said this will be a great learning opportunity. And that is what we have been approaching every single match with. That it’s an opportunity to learn.

“We’re not hanging our hands. We’re not beating ourselves up over it. We’re not contemplating quitting and disbanding as a team.”

Booth is the daughter of Denver Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth, and he offered some recent advice.

“It’s this phrase which is ‘losing is easy, winning is hard,’ ” Booth said. “Losing and winning is not just about the match that happens out there.

“It’s about our mindset within that match. Our mindset after. How we attack the gym after. It’s easy to lose. It’s easy for us to say, well, shucks, we suck. And that’s it and not get better. It’s hard to win that battle. It’s hard to want to get back in the gym. It’s hard to keep our heads held high and still have hope for this team.

“And I feel like this team is doing the hard things. We like hard things. So even if we’re not winning out there on the court right now, we’re winning the battles that come after.”

Stanford will be in Milwaukee for over a week

Stanford doesn’t start classes for a few weeks, so the Cardinal is enjoying an extended stay in Milwaukee.

The Cardinal played UW-Milwaukee Friday, then Minnesota and UW at Fiserv Forum. Stanford will stick around and face Marquette on Wednesday at the Al McGuire Center.

It has been mostly a business trip for the Cardinal.

“We’ve just been enjoying our time here, the weather’s great,” Stanford’s Kami Miner said. “We’ve just been working hard. We’ve been really focused on these matches.

“We haven’t done a lot of exploring or anything like that. People are great. The atmosphere here is great. We’ve just been enjoying being able to play volleyball in this sort of environment. It’s something that we’ve really been looking forward to. So it’s been an awesome experience being here.”

Women’s College Volleyball Showcase was a success at Fiserv Forum

Fiserv Forum has hosted first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in men’s basketball, and will do so again this March.

Could a NCAA Final Four in volleyball be coming in the future?

There is certainly a market for the sport. Over 14,000 fans attended UW’s match against Texas on Sunday. Organizers knew they wouldn’t get close to that with late afternoon and evening matches on Labor Day – the upper deck had curtains on Monday – but 8,213 fans watched UW-Stanford.

The event has to be considered a success for Intersport, which organized the event.

“It’s just really, really cool to be part of this,” Stanford coach Kevin Hambly said. “It’s great to see how much volleyball has grown over the last couple years.

“And that people are committed to putting it on major streaming services. To be out here to be in this, I think we are all excited to be part of that. We’re as excited for the competition, but to be a part of this and what a great job they’ve done, it’s made Milwaukee feel like home. Maybe too much because we’ve been here too long, but it’s certainly been very comfortable and these guys have put on a great event.”

Wisconsin volleyball’s Carter Booth not discouraged after 0-3 start

Errors at end of sets rankle UW coach Kelly Sheffield

UW’s Carter Booth offers impassioned response to loss

Stanford will be in Milwaukee for over a week

Women’s College Volleyball Showcase was a success at Fiserv Forum

By meerna

You Missed

Quakers Go All Out | News, Sports, Jobs

Police say man accused of raping and strangling woman on houseboat

Rams WR Puka Nacua leaves Lions in OT with knee injury

USA TODAY SPORTS/US LBM SOCCER COACHES SURVEY

Wisconsin volleyball’s Carter Booth not discouraged after 0-3 start

Errors at end of sets rankle UW coach Kelly Sheffield

UW’s Carter Booth offers impassioned response to loss

Stanford will be in Milwaukee for over a week

Women’s College Volleyball Showcase was a success at Fiserv Forum

By meerna

Related Post

Quakers Go All Out | News, Sports, Jobs

Police say man accused of raping and strangling woman on houseboat

Rams WR Puka Nacua leaves Lions in OT with knee injury

You Missed

Quakers Go All Out | News, Sports, Jobs

Police say man accused of raping and strangling woman on houseboat

Rams WR Puka Nacua leaves Lions in OT with knee injury

USA TODAY SPORTS/US LBM SOCCER COACHES SURVEY