EDITOR'S NOTE
Let the games begin
by Brian Mason
Varsity Editor
At first, all the talk is fun. All the preseason talk, that is. After a summer without sports, any fan of college athletics can tell fall is coming when the volume goes up on chatter ranging from team previews and conference breakdowns to preseason polls and award watch lists.
It's usually only a matter of time, however, before the talk becomes just that — noise. Now, finally, weeks of hype and prognostication have come and gone and a schedule of actual events is on the horizon. Reading about our favorite teams is great (especially in the pages of Varsity, right?) but what we really want is to see them compete. Actions speak louder than words, after all.
What does that mean for the teams at UW?
One has already begun its competitive season (against the nation's top-ranked team, no less) and two others get started this weekend.
Women's soccer — seeking a third-straight NCAA tournament appearance — fell to No. 1 Notre Dame and now continues its rugged schedule with a pair of home games against Washington and Green Bay this weekend at the McClimon Complex.
Men's soccer, entering its second season under head coach John Trask, looks to make a significant leap forward for the second straight year and opens with Western Illinois under the lights at McClimon on Saturday.
Read all about Trask's plans for the Badgers in the latest installment of our "State of the Program" series on page 32.
Then there's the volleyball team, which will be similarly featured in next week's issue and begins its 2011 season at the Duke Invitational this weekend.
Head coach Pete Waite's Badgers are looking to claw back toward the top of the Big Ten heap, a task that's among the least enviable of any a UW team will face this year. Eleven of the league's 12 teams were represented in voting for the preseason coaches' poll, including seven (seven!) in the top 25 and three among the nation's top 10.
Add in football's highly-anticipated opener vs. UNLV at Camp Randall next Thursday and it will really begin to feel like fall in Madison.
I, for one, am happy to hear it.
