This year’s Marquette-Wisconsin volleyball match will be a battle of contrasts in some ways.
Tom Mendoza is in his first season as Marquette’s coach. Kelly Sheffield, on the other hand, is in his 13th season at the helm of Wisconsin’s program.
Wisconsin is ranked seventh in the most recent coaches poll while Marquette did not receive votes on multiple ballots after its loss to Ball State. Sheffield noted that MU is “playing pretty darn well” in his Sept. 15 press conference, though.
This will be MU’s first match against a ranked opponent this season (although Western Kentucky has consistently received votes). UW has played three matches against ranked foes.
Here are three things to watch as the Badgers and Golden Eagles face off at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m.:
Another big crowd expected
The last two MU-UW volleyball matches have been in front of impressive crowds.
The 2024 match had 15,084 fans at the Kohl Center, and the 2023 match had 17,073 fans at Fiserv Forum. The 2023 crowd set records for the highest-attended women’s sporting event in the state of Wisconsin and the highest-attended NCAA indoor regular-season match.
Mendoza was hired as MU’s coach in early March, just a few weeks after the 2025 match against UW at Fiserv Forum was announced. Mendoza was able to watch the MU men’s basketball team’s final regular-season game at Fiserv, and also a Milwaukee Bucks game.
Now his team will take center stage, and it will be interesting to see how the Golden Eagles react to playing in front of such a large crowd. In their first four matches at the Al McGuire Center, MU had an average of 843 fans.
This is not an entirely new experience for the 2025 Badgers, however. Wisconsin’s first two matches — against then-No. 14 Kansas and then-No. 5 Texas — were in front of crowds of 10,072 and 11,678 at the Kohl Center, respectively. UW’s three matches at the Field House each had official attendance numbers above 5,000.
While it is officially a Marquette home match, both programs have announced pre-match events for their respective fan bases. MU announced a pregame block party in the Deer District and a ticketed pregame reception at Pilot Project Brewing. UW has a “tailgate” at Deer District’s The New Fashioned restaurant.
Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer has been among best in the country
Mimi Colyer has made an immediate impact after transferring from Oregon to Wisconsin in the offseason.
Colyer has 99 kills in her first 19 sets as a Badger, equating to 5.21 kills per set. That ranks second nationally and first among Power Four programs. Only one other Power Four athlete, LSU’s Jurnee Robinson, is averaging more than five kills per set.
Colyer has a .349 hitting percentage so far this year, which is higher than in any of her three seasons at Oregon. She was a 2024 second-team All-American and 2023 All-America honorable mention.
“She hits high, she reaches, it crosses the net at a very high point,” Sheffield said. “Rarely does she bring it down into the block, and she’s got great vision of the court. … Coming out of the gate, she’s been great.”
Ring is the thing at Marquette
Natalie Ring set the tone for her final season at MU with a career-high 27 kills in the opener at Hawaii. She topped that with 28 the next day against Utah State. In seven matches, the 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Edgewood High School in Madison has piled up 137 kills.
“She’s probably putting up the best numbers of anybody that we’ve seen so far this year,” Sheffield said. “Can hammer the ball, can also get the ball into good areas of the court, physical blocker.”
Ring will have an interesting matchup against a UW team that boasts a 6-foot-7 middle blocker in Carter Booth. The Badgers do not necessarily have the same size as they have enjoyed in recent seasons, though.
“Our blocking numbers aren’t bad,” Sheffield said. “We’re putting up some decent numbers, but yeah, we don’t have the size that we’ve had. … It’s an area that we will continue to get better at.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 things to watch ahead of Marquette-Wisconsin volleyball match at Fiserv Forum
Reporting by John Steppe and Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
