AURORA, Ill. — The atmosphere of Saturday's Great Lakes Center NCAA Invitational was rather reminiscent of a high school tournament.

For some of the UW volleyball players from the area, it was an opportunity to see some old friends and family.

For the others, the down time in between matches was a chance to catch up on some reading.

And just the setup of the bracket — first pool play before advancing to either the gold, silver or bronze tournament with every match a best-of-three series — felt very much like a high school club team's tournament instead of one catering to 23 collegiate teams and one adult team.

However, there was no denying the college level of talent in the Invitational, evident by Wisconsin's inability to find consistency throughout the day despite heading into the tournament as a heavy favorite.

Missing Audra Jeffers due to a sore back and having a somewhat-ill Maria Carlini in the lineup didn't help much, either.

Pitted against Bowling Green and South Carolina in pool play, Wisconsin did not get off to a great start.

UW squeaked by Bowling Green 31-29, 30-27 in the first game but then fell to South Carolina 30-18, 26-30, 11-15 and, thus, was forced to settle for the silver tournament, as it finished second in its respective pool.

Despite being the "second-place" tournament, the silver bracket was not much easier, and just like in the NCAA men's basketball tournament last month, Wisconsin faced Arizona in the first round.

This time around, the Badgers avoided a first-round upset by routing the Wildcats 30-22, 30-25 — not the close, competitive match many expected from the only two Elite Eight teams at the Invitational.

Wisconsin's toughest match, though, came in the second round against Big Ten opponent Purdue.

The Boilermakers came out strong and found themselves with a nine-point lead in the first game at 15-24, but UW fought back and actually obtained a 27-26 lead before falling 28-30.

In the second game, Purdue jumped out to an early lead once again at 20-11, and though the Badgers clawed back to a 26-26 tie, they eventually lost 27-30.

With much of its squad back from last year, Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite was impressed with Purdue's improvement from last fall's fifth-place Big Ten finish.

"Purdue has a lot of [players] who they had back, and nobody's out, injured or anything like that, so they were pretty strong," Waite said. "They're tough. They serve tough and play some great defense and bring a lot to you."

The only position Purdue really needed to find a replacement for was at setter, and Lindsay Schondell — Boilermaker head coach Dave Schondell's daughter — played extremely well against Wisconsin.

After losing to Purdue, the Badgers were scheduled to play another Big Ten rival —Iowa — in the third place game, but Hawkeye head coach Cindy Frederick asked to call off the last game, as she only had seven available players who were exhausted after a long day.

With three injured players — Jeffers, Carlini and Jackie Simpson (broken hand) — Waite had no problem with heading home early.

"We were a little beat up, too," Waite said. "Jackie and Audra didn't play, and Maria was sick all week, so we were pretty tacked, but we definitely got our money's worth."

Also, having to face another conference team in the spring season wasn't the most intriguing situation.

"You get to match up and see how you're doing against them," Waite said of playing against the Big Ten during spring play. "But sometimes you get a little tired of seeing the same teams, and it's nice when you meet some people from other conferences, like when we played Arizona and South Carolina. You just see some different athletes and different systems."

While Wisconsin ended up finishing with a somewhat disappointing 2-2 record and technically a third-place finish in the silver bracket, the weekend wasn't a lost one for a team looking to end the spring season on a high note.

"We were a little bit streaky," Waite said. "But there were times where we played some great ball and we did things we haven't done all spring. I thought Katie [Lorenzen] set better than she has all spring, and that was some good progress for her."

Lorenzen was able to play exclusively at the setter position all spring with Simpson's injury, and her improvement was just one of many for the team this season as the Badgers are hoping to continue to build off of their postseason success from recent years with much of their roster still intact.

"Katie got a lot of great setting time in and improved her skills, and that puts us even deeper at the setter spot," Waite said. "Also, Jeffers was moved to the left side hitting this spring, so she really expanded her game, and she'll be an even better player next year. And I think Amy Bladow made some big strides this spring from where she was last fall, and that was great.

"Once we get healed up and rested over the summer, everything's going to soak in and we'll be ready to go in the fall."