How offseason work has taken Wisconsin volleyball's Anna Smrek to new heights (2024)

Anna Smrek is experiencing another growth spurt.

No, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team’s 6-foot-9 junior is not getting any taller. But her game appears to be climbing to new heights.

Smrek has had plenty of impactful moments during her first two seasons with the Badgers, most notably her Most Outstanding Player performance in the 2021 Final Four that was a major factor in their capturing their first NCAA championship.

But those moments, which have been somewhat sporadic in the past, are becoming an every match occurrence so far this season.

So, has she taken her game to a new level for the No. 1 Badgers (12-0, 3-0 Big Ten Conference)?

“I have,” Smrek said. “It’s definitely taken off at the pace I kind of wanted myself to. Last year I started off really slow and that’s not what I wanted to do this year. I wanted to start off with a bang.”

Through 12 matches heading into Sunday’s contest against Michigan (2-10, 0-3), Smrek is averaging 2.55 kills per set and hitting .414, seventh best in the conference. That’s a significant bump up from her career numbers of 1.73 and .338 over her first two seasons.

Smrek’s stats actually took a slight dip last season (1.66 kps, .318), but coach Kelly Sheffield said those numbers were skewed by a disastrous early season match in which she committed 11 attack errors against Baylor.

“She had very low hitting errors after that, but it just took her a long time to get out of that hole,” Sheffield said. “She was under .200 for the first part of the season but she was playing a lot cleaner of a game.”

Indeed, after that Baylor match she only had more than three errors on one occasion.

While she finished strong, Smrek was determined to not repeat that rough start this season. Unlike the previous year when her spring and summer work was limited due to injury, Smrek worked on her game relentlessly in preparation for this season.

“There were a lot of things in my freshman year game that I needed to do better, different things with my contact, getting more control on the ball,” Smrek said. “But going into my sophom*ore year I missed out on my time alone to better myself individually, working on little parts of my game by myself. I missed out on getting in the gym every day to do that.

“Coming off of this spring I was in the gym after morning practices and I really kind of locked into my brain that this what I’m getting better at this year because I don’t want to have a slow start, I don’t want to just be at my best for the last part of the tournament. I want to start off with that and be strong as I go.

“Obviously, I want to continue to get better, but hold myself to that standard that I did the work to get here.”

While she worked on all aspects of her game, a primary focus was to improve her attack, both in terms of variety of shots and consistency of contact.

“My ball control was not great,” she said. “It’s being able to work different shots and manage different sets that I’m given. Not every ball is going to be perfect and I can’t be erroring on things like that. I’ve got to have my setter’s back. I’ve got to build that trust.

“So it’s little things in my game to tweak, where I’m contacting the ball, going up and getting it high every time. Just little things like that, I think you lose sight on how big of an impact that actually has on one’s game and I lost that my sophom*ore year. I will admit that but it’s something I don’t want to happen this year.”

“She did a lot of work in the offseason on her hand contact and that’s a reason why she’s improved so much on her out of system attacks,” Hammill said. “It’s a lot of work behind the scenes. This isn’t just because she’s tall or has that athleticism. A lot of work goes into the skill aspect.

“One of the drills she really took to in the spring was hitting to herself on a box and making sure she had the same hand contact. And then even sending down balls off of a box, going in with passers to give them reps. She’s put in a lot of hours on her own time outside of practice.”

Hammill is Smrek’s personal setter, as the two substitute in and out at the same time as part of the 6-2 lineup that pairs each setter with a right-side attacker. Now in their second season together, those two have strengthened their connection over time.

“We’ve definitely worked on our connection a lot,” Smrek said. “In my half of the game, finding ways to better each ball in little ways, letting her know it doesn’t have to be perfect every single time. If she’s in a tough situation she can still find me and that I’m up and ready for her on anything.

“We built trust in the gym and I know that she has my back 100 percent. By working off the net for her and whatever I’m doing, I’m having her back by doing that. Last year it was a new system we were running and I wasn’t with MJ a lot in the gym setting before that. We had to kind of find our rhythm and now I feel like we’ve kind of locked that in and we know when it feels good and where we want to be at.”

Hammill said she’s learned to adjust her sets to Smrek to factor in her unusually high reach, as she touches around 11-feet-2, around a foot higher than most hitters.

“The trajectory is a little bit different,” Hammill said. “I’m not trying to fly it past her, but I’m also not trying to give it too much time in the air. My thing is giving her that window so she can go up and do the work. So it’s trying to find her hand as quickly as I can from that height.”

While Smrek has always been a force when attacking on quicks in the middle in front of the setter, the former middle blocker has not always been as effective hitting from the pin. That’s been especially true out of system when the timing of a play gets a little wonky.

But she’s made giant strides in that area, as well.

“She’s actually hitting a higher percentage out of system at the right antenna than she is hitting in system at the right antenna,” Sheffield said. “Last year it was really tough to get good quality swings out of system. But right now out of system on the right pin she’s hitting around .400. She’s doing a really good job with getting her feet to the ball and putting the ball in good areas of the court.”

While she’s still prone to occasionally sending a ball into the third row, Smrek has learned how to process that, make a correction and not let it get inside her head.

“A lot of times I get those missed contacts when my approach is all one speed or my arms aren’t loose and I’m approaching really tense,” she said. “That’s being corrected by my coaches telling me to relax my arms and find my rhythm so many times that I’ve kept that at the forefront of my head.

“Instead of trying to pick it apart too much in the moment, I just think, OK, be more dynamic. Go up and get that, kind of simplifying that so I don’t get so surrounded by that one error and let that drag on. I will admit that sometimes when I’m reaching up high I might get a little wristy and it’ll just fly up. But I’m contacting the ball high, at least.”

As Smrek smooths out all the aspects of her game, Sheffield sees no limit to the impact she can have on the sport. But even as her improvement escalates, he understands that her peak won’t be reached while wearing a Wisconsin uniform.

“She’ll be one of the best players in the world when it’s all said and done,” Sheffield said. “I’m not saying she’ll be one of the best players while she’s here. Her trajectory into that, she’s on her way. Her best days by far are way out in front of her.”

Smrek has heard those kind of comments from him and while she doesn’t run from those expectations she also doesn’t let any of that go to her head.

“That’s great to hear but it’s only potential,” she said. “I’ve got to make something out of it. I’ve got to get my game up there. That’s all the work that I’m doing here with my team and on my own.

“I feel like the way that I’ve worked not only on my physical game but my mental game and positioning myself to be in the right head space, I think I’m definitely on the right track.”

Hammill, for one, doesn’t doubt that she’ll fulfill those expectations. She just appreciates that she’s been along for at least part of the ride.

“It’s really cool that I play with her and I get to set her because if she’s grown this much in such a short period of time, I’m so excited for her career after college and where she will take her game,” Hammill said. “She does a lot of things that we’ve never seen before in volleyball.”