MADISON – Kristen Simon went into her first Wisconsin volleyball match with some nerves, and it showed right away in the first point of the first set.
“I had a really bad pass, got it out of the way, and I was like, ‘OK, it can’t get worse than that,’” Simon said.
The 5-foot-8 libero’s first pass of the 2026 season may be much better after a freshman year of competition, development and improvement before some different competition soon arrives in Madison.
“Kristen has really grown in the position,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said in the spring.
Simon – after beating out fellow freshman Aniya Warren, the highest-rated libero recruit in the class, for the Badgers’ starting job – played in 108 of 111 sets and recorded 375 digs, which were the fourth-most by a freshman in program history. Her 3.47 digs per set was third-highest.
Then in the spring, she passed a 2.09 on 50 attempts with a 74% good pass percentage. Those were in exhibitions against Marquette, UW-Green Bay and Northern Illinois.
“I was bored in class one day, so I went and looked back at some of my old games,” Simon said. “And I was like, ‘I can’t believe I looked like that.’”
For as much as Simon has grown, though, she and Sheffield have their eyes on plenty of areas where she can still improve.
“Developing my hands,” Simon said. “I want to better my accuracy and increase my range a little bit on that. … My range – I want to be able to increase my coverage of the court and be able to help others out so that they can worry about hitting, because obviously I don’t have to do that.”
Her range goes hand-in-hand with another possible area for improvement – using her voice more on the court. That comes amid a season where she is no longer one of the rookies, but rather a key returning player.
“Sometimes I think you can kind of get in your comfort zone a little bit, and so we’re trying to get out of that a little bit with her voice and her owning the backcourt,” Sheffield said. “She’s playing with more range, and I think that starts with what you’re telling yourself. … When you’re playing with people that are All-Americans, that are three and four years older, you have a tendency of deferring.”
Simon similarly wants to be “communicating better with my teammates and being stronger with that presence.”
“Before, I would communicate, but it wouldn’t be very urgent,” Simon said.
The Badgers’ spring practices and matches offered plenty of opportunities for Simon to work on those aspects of her repertoire. After all, she was the team’s only libero on the spring roster. (International recruit Anna Bardaro will join her as one of two liberos so far on the fall roster.)
Warren transferred to Oklahoma after the 2025 season, and Maile Chan transferred to Florida State. While that presumably offered better paths to playing time for Warren and Chan, it left UW with only one option at a key position.
Alumni such as Lauren (Barnes) Dunn and Tiffany Clark filled some of the void at the position during spring practices. Clark was a 2018 All-America honorable mention. Dunn was a 2020 second-team All-American and part of UW’s 2021 national championship team.
“It’s definitely interesting because when we scrimmage, it’s like, ‘Well, who’s it going to be today?’” Simon said. “Obviously we’ve had Lauren and Tiffany, which has been super fun to get to learn from them because they’re such known liberos that have come through this program.”
Some of what Simon learned from the past UW standout liberos had less to do with volleyball technique and more to do with their competitive mentality. One of Dunn’s plays in particular quickly came to mind for Simon.
“She shanked the ball, and she was like, ‘Ugh, Lauren,’” Simon said. “She was so mad at herself, and they’re giving her grace. … She just comes in, and it wasn’t even that bad of a pass.”
Heading into the fall, Bardaro will join Simon at the libero position with international experience competing for Italy’s U21 team and clubs such as Italian juggernaut Imoco Volleyball Conegliano and then Cuneo Granda Volley.
Simon appears to be embracing the impending competition – and learning opportunity next to a libero with as much international experience as Bardaro has.
“To be honest, I don’t really know much about her, but I’m excited to have another libero in the gym,” Simon said in an interview shortly after Bardaro’s commitment. “So that’ll be super fun. I love learning. Aniya and I learned a lot from each other last year.”
Bardaro told Sheffield that Simon was the first UW player to reach out and congratulate her, which offered somewhat of a flashback to another two competing liberos – and especially familiar faces during spring practices.
“Tiffany Clark and Lauren Barnes were here this week,” Sheffield said after UW’s last spring match. “When Lauren Barnes committed, the first one to reach out to her was Tiffany Clark. … Great players want people that are great next to them, and that’s one of the things that I love about Kris.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin volleyball’s Kristen Simon eyes more growth after big freshman year
Reporting by John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
