University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Volleyball flies friendly skies for weekend tournament in Wisconsin
9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss could really not have a bigger stage in which to play its final non-conference tournament.
The action, which will take place at the UW Field House in Madison, Wisc., begins Friday with a 6 p.m. CT match against Marquette. Saturday features a 7 p.m. CT bout with the No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers. Links and updates on how to follow the action can be found via UWBadgers.com and Twitter (@SouthernMissVB).
It would be an understatement to say this trip means a lot for head coach Amanda Berkley and associate head coach David Brown, returning to their alma mater.
Berkley, the 2016 AVCA Southwest Region Coach of the Year, is second in program history for wins and first in win percentage. - Berkley played for the Badgers from 2004-07. A former walk-on who earned a scholarship in 2006, Berkley joined the Badgers at open tryouts during the 2004 spring season. She tallied 659 digs in her career, averaging 1.87 per set. As a senior, she tied for second on the team, which ranked No. 14, with 23 service aces.
Brown was an assistant for two years before being promoted to Associate Head Coach in April. He graduated with degrees in history, political science and history education. Brown played/coached the Badger's men's club team for five years and also coached at Oregon HS.
This trip is not completely-unfamiliar territory for the program. The 2011 squad competed in the Marquette/Milwaukee Invitational a week after competing in Ames, Iowa. In that Badger State weekend, the team dropped its first two matches to Marquette and UW Milwaukee before defeating Akron. Southern Miss has never faced Wisconsin and is 6-8 against Marquette, its long-ago Conference USA rival.
The Badgers (7-0) have swept each opponent this season, including then-No. 11 North Carolina. Wisconsin boasts a ridiculous .352 hitting percentage, second in the nation. Its .126 opponent mark is tied for eighth and the 3.19 blocks per set ranks seventh. Last year's Badger squad garnered its first-ever No. 1 ranking and made it to the Regional final, losing in five sets at home to eventual-national champion Stanford.
Marquette brings its own Golden Eagle squad to the fray on Friday night, holding a 5-4 record after sweeping UW Milwaukee this week. Allie Barber (4.59 kills/set) and Jenna Rosenthal (.347 hitting percentage, 0.41 aces/set) are the two primary threats offensively, with Rosenthal also holding an impressive 1.29 blocks/set average.
The Golden Eagles (9-4) registered back-to-back sweeps (Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana) after falling in consecutive matches for the first time since 2015. The squad has won the first set in 11 of its 13 matches.
Junior Sarah Bell, who last year finished No. 10 in the nation in assists/set, has established herself even more with a lethal dump game. Through one four-match stretch this year (Sept. 1-5), she boasted a .538 hitting percentage (14 kills, no errors in 26 attacks). Bell has a team-high .409 hitting percentage that continues a torrid pace (.254 as a freshman, .310 as a sophomore). Her 0.35 blocks/set are even a career-high.
Freshman defensive specialist/libero Melanie Miller has stepped up the last two matches, collecting career-highs in digs each time. She had 10 against Nicholls and then 17 at Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, where her sister played from 2013-14 and where her father went to school.
