With the first half of the Big Ten season almost under wraps, the Wisconsin volleyball team (9-8, 4-4) faces two big conference matchups this weekend at the UW Field House. Beginning Friday night, the Badgers will host No. 8 Illinois (14-3, 6-2), and the next night, Northwestern (11-9, 2-6) will come to Madison.

Coming off a weekend split on the road that saw the Badgers fall to Purdue 3-1 and then later defeat Indiana 3-2, Wisconsin stands in fifth place in the conference standings. At his press conference Monday, head coach Pete Waite expressed his satisfaction of how his team has been performing lately.

“I was pleased that we came back on Sunday against Indiana at their place (and) won in five,” Waite said. “And on both nights we had some good performances. Alexis Mitchell was very, very good (for a) freshman middle blocker. Against Purdue: 14 kills, no errors, which is amazing for a young player, and some players don’t have that in their careers. So that was outstanding.”

Midseason assessment

With the conference schedule officially half over after this weekend, the Badgers have had numerous occasions to gauge their talent and assess their potential.

“I really like — in the last couple of weeks — the progress we’ve made,” Waite said. “To get a split on the road was still pretty good for us. We’re in the middle of the Big Ten right now and I might not have seen us there early in the season, the way we started against Iowa. I’m happy with where we are.”

Waite was referencing Wisconsin’s Big Ten opener against Iowa on Sept. 23, where the Badgers were outmatched in a four-set, 3-1 loss. Since then, UW has improved its overall play and Waite is impressed with what he has seen.

Developing a young team

With 11 underclassmen on the roster, Waite has been coaching a remarkably young team that has started to come together in recent weeks.

“We believed they could [be good], but they weren’t sure of themselves and they’re just going to have holes in different parts of their game where they could lose points and give unforced errors to the opponent,” Waite said of his young players. “And in rally scoring, that just kills you. They really learned to limit the unforced errors — the service errors, the blocking errors, the attack errors.”

With the Badgers in the thick of the Big Ten race and plenty of matches left to play, there is cause for excitement with this team and Waite recognizes it.

“Absolutely, they’re starting to believe in themselves. They’re starting to look at everybody as somebody they can beat, not somebody to be worried about so much but somebody to go after.”