Kelly Sheffield identifies key trait that made 2025 Wisconsin volleyball team special

Kelly Sheffield has coached plenty of great Wisconsin Badgers volleyball teams over the years, but one particular trait made the 2025 squad stand out, on its way to a Final Four run.

They may not have gotten the national championship they were hoping for, but Sheffield saw this team play in a way he hasn't seen before in his 13 years leading the program.

"This team did a better job of elevating each other than any team I’ve ever had," Sheffield said Thursday after the loss to Kentucky. "You want your players to max out. Our seniors had a heck of a match. Our younger kids played with courage. They learned what courage was, and this team came together and grew. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

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He pointed to the leadership of his stars Mimi Colyer and Carter Booth setting the tone and building on the culture of the team.

Colyer was in Madison for just one season, but she left her mark on the program with plenty of records in a historic season.

"She came in here, and she wanted to take her game to the next level," Sheffield said. "When you transfer with one year, there’s got to be a lot of trust to get in the deep end. And so many people, when they’re toward the end of their career, they’re preserving some things like ego or whatever. And a lot of times those players will just get in the shallow end. She dove headfirst."

For Booth, it was the culmination of three impactful seasons with the Badgers, and Sheffield saw tremendous growth from here all throughout the process.

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He admitted that the two of them clashed regularly in the early days working together, but she emerged as an ideal role model for the program.

"Just the growth that she has done and then just the effectiveness of her as a leader was just through the roof there at the end," Sheffield said. "One thing we say is, it's not about being right; it’s about being effective. And she became one of the most effective leaders that we’ve ever had here, this last year.”

That culminated in another deep NCAA tournament run that ended in a heartbreaker Thursday night.

Sheffield knows that when the pain from the loss wears off, his team will have a lot to be proud of from this season.

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