Even though Nikki Klingsporn grew up close enough to the University of Minnesota campus to know all about the Gophers' successful volleyball program, she never considered playing there after visiting the University of Wisconsin.

"I just fell in love with Wisconsin the first time I saw it. I couldn't see myself anywhere else," said the Badgers' sophomore setter.

While Klingsporn quickly learned to love the electric atmosphere that surrounds UW volleyball matches at the UW Field House, she is part of a team that is still learning to understand a more important tradition -- handling the opponent's serve -- that has been a major key for all of the best UW teams.

Ask UW coach Pete Waite about it, and he'll say that's the biggest difference between this year's UW team, which has struggled at times and opens the Big Ten Conference season Friday night at Iowa with a 10-2 record, and last year's team that lost just five times all season.

"When we lost our core of three passers last year -- three four-year starters (Jo Wack, Megan Mills and Amanda Berkley) -- that left a hole where these people have to step up and do it on a regular basis," said Waite, whose team has dropped to 18th in the latest AVCA Top 25 coaches poll.

Since that hasn't happened yet, opponents are focusing on serving at exposed UW stars like junior All-American left-side hitter Brittney Dolgner, and that has kept her from attacking with any consistency. Last year, Dolgner was protected on serve receive by players like Wack, Mills and Berkley so she could focus on what she does best.

"You have to be consistent with serve receive so you can't let the other team get a run of points or so that you can stay within your offense and set some balls aggressively and attack the opponent," said Waite, whose team lost to Miami (Ohio) at a tournament three weeks ago and Oregon State at a tournament in Milwaukee last weekend. The Badgers also narrowly defeated BYU in five sets at a tournament at the Field House two weeks ago.

Klingsporn believes the Badgers' problems are correctable. "I think we're trying to work better as a team. We have new players out there, new faces, a couple of freshmen, and we're trying to flow better," she said.

"I think it's something preseason has taught us," Klingsporn continued. "It's not anything physical that we're doing, it's more of a mentality of staying focused for a whole match, competing to win and outworking the other team."

Waite agreed. He said young teams often lose focus during matches played out of the norm like early morning (the loss to Miami) or late night.

"Sometimes, without trying, they pace themselves instead of going all out right away, finish the team off and play great ball on every contact," Waite said. "That's something they've learned because they don't want to find themselves at that point in the fifth set when it could be an official's call or the ball bounces the wrong way and all of a sudden you lose the match."