In a way, women’s college volleyball is like college football.
Every school wants to win a national championship, but only a few have what it takes to get it done.
In the first 38 years of the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament, only 10 schools won titles. It is an exclusive club, one that seldom gives outsiders a chance to step behind the velvet ropes.
After seven years of building under coach Kelly Sheffield, the University of Wisconsin program has progressed to a point where it can think about crashing the party. Respected nationally and a critically acclaimed hit locally, the Badgers need only win a championship to validate the belief they’ve arrived as a national power. They enter the NCAA Final Four this week in Pittsburgh with a realistic chance to join the closed circle at the top of the sport.
“It’s definitely a huge goal,” Sheffield said. “There’s been 10 programs in our sport that have won a national championship. Only 10. And there hasn’t been a new one that has gotten into that exclusive club in about 15 years. We’re knocking on the door. It’s time to bust it down.”
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Problem is, that’s not a door UW must break down. It’s more like a castle gate.
UW won’t be favored to get that done, either. The Badgers, who began the tournament as the fourth overall seed and haven’t dropped a set in four matches, will take on top-seeded Baylor in one semifinal. Third-seeded Stanford and seventh-seeded Minnesota will meet in the other semifinal.
In a strange twist to this year’s Final Four, Baylor and Minnesota join UW as programs that have never won a title. Stanford, on the other hand, leads all schools with eight.
No matter what happens this week, though, UW’s burgeoning program has what it takes to join volleyball’s elite. It has size, depth, experience and stars. It sold out every match at the venerable UW Field House this season and ranks second behind Nebraska in attendance nationally. It has the support of an athletic department that understands it has another hit program on its hands, one that has positioned itself to compete for national titles.
“The fan base, man, they’re hungry, they’re ready,” Sheffield said. “And it’s not just the volleyball fan base, it’s this school. There’s a hunger for that. That Field House has been a part of a lot of really, really cool things. It could certainly use a volleyball national championship (banner) to go along with those boxing championship ones that are hung up there. The alums? I’m hearing from alums right now that I never coached. They’re all making the trek to Pittsburgh. And certainly, you’re wanting that for the players. You want them to be able to experience that and to be there when the confetti is falling.”
Not many schools have experienced the confetti falling. In addition to Stanford’s eight titles, Penn State has seven, Nebraska five, UCLA four, Southern Cal, Hawaii and Long Beach State three each, Texas and Pacific two each and Washington one. Washington is the most recent school to crack the inner circle in 2005. And speaking of dominance, those same 10 programs have lost in the national final in 29 of the 38 years.
Clearly, not much changes in college volleyball. And if you want the pecking order to change, it’s up to you to make it change. You have to put yourselves in position enough times and hope you’ll eventually break through.
“Year after year, we’ve been knocking on that door,” Sheffield said. “You’ve got to be better than the opponent that night. Your work for the rest of the year helps set the stage for that. But I don’t think there’s any secret sauce or anything. It’s just, ‘Let’s go play a match and (see) if you’re the last one standing.’ It would be different if we were so much further away than where we’re at. If you’re a team that is just trying to get into the NCAA tournament or you’re a team that doesn’t have the support of the athletic department, you can say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have more support. We’ve got to have a better schedule. We’ve got to get into a better conference. We’ve got to do blah, blah, blah.’ But we’ve got everything we need. We finally have experience with our players as well. We’ve been a pretty young team the past couple years. We’ve got the experience now and I think we’re going to go there and we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Contrary to popular belief, these things don’t happen overnight, which is why Sheffield built the program methodically even after an out-of-the-blue run to the NCAA final in 2013, his first year.
UW added about 1,000 seats to the Field House two years ago when it opened up the long-unused upper deck on both sides of the court. During last week’s regional tournament, Sheffield said he would like to open up the rest of the upper deck next.
“It’s time,” he said. “I wasn’t knocking on the door to get the upper deck opened up early. I wanted to sell out the lower bowl for a couple of years before we opened up any of it. Then it was, ‘All right, we sold out for two years,’ and we opened up the straight-aways (in the upper deck). Now it’s, ‘OK, we sold out for two years in a row,’ it’s time to pass up Nebraska for the biggest (average attendance). The fans are coming. They sold the regional out in 17 minutes. It’s time to do that, not just for special events but to get that every single night. This place is ready for it. I’m all for it. Those discussions, they’re above me ... but for the first time I’m now for it. That was always a goal, but this is the first time that I’ve gone to them and said, ‘Hey, we’re ready for it. The program’s ready for it.’ “
It won’t be easy, but the program also might be ready for a championship.
Photos: Badgers sweep Nebraska to earn trip to Final Four