Wisconsin lost its first home match of the year against the No. 21 Washington Huskies. A match that Wisconsin had plenty of chances to win but couldn’t quite find the way to finish. The Washington defense was relentless and seemed to win every long rally. The block was really good against the Wisconsin pins, and yet the Badgers couldn’t find a way to block Simona Mateska, who had 31 kills on the evening.
Kelly Sheffield was pretty frustrated after the match, but with a touch of hope in his voice. “Tonight, we got beat by a team that just got us by a couple of points here and played great,” Sheffield said. According to Sheffield, the thing that drove him crazy was the “taking the foot off the gas.” He said that in set two they had it all wrapped up, “You’re up 24-21, and you have an opportunity to go up on a team two, and we let our foot off the gas and now we’re one and one.”
That foot-off-the-gas feeling was a real problem. Kristen Simon said it was a lack of mental toughness. She told reporters that the goal going forward needs to be “Being able to stay mentally strong throughout all five sets and not letting teams come back.”
Kelly Sheffield and Kristen Simon want to see better mental toughness from the Badgers
Related: 4 thoughts from Wisconsin volleyball’s 5 set home loss to No. 21 Washington…