Sheffield era starts with challenging schedule for Badgers Volleyball

Scheduling in the world of NCAA Volleyball has never been more important than it is now and in new head coach Kelly Sheffield's first season at Wisconsin he's going to challenge the Badgers with fourteen teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. 

“The non-conference schedule for us is a challenging one, no question, but one that I think will help prepare us for the Big Ten schedule,” said Sheffield. “Seven of our 12 non-conference matches are against teams that were in the NCAA tournament last year and just about every team finished in the top half of the RPI. We will be challenged every single tournament and that’s what I wanted for this team.”

Seven Big Ten teams made the tournament last season and the Badgers will also take on seven teams that made the NCAA tournament in the non-conference slate. 

Things get started with a visit to the California coast at the Pepperdine Invitational where UW will go up against Iona, Delaware and the host Waves, who were an NCAA tournament participant last season.

After that it's three more non-conference tournaments, ones that will feature two NCAA tournament teams a piece. Wisconsin will face Louisville and Northern Iowa (NCAA tournament teams) at the North Dakota State tournament the following weekend. 

Next up is the Badgers own tournament, the InnTowner Invitational (in it's 22nd year), at the UW Fieldhouse. It'll be Bowling Green and Kansas as the NCAA tournament teams in the field and in-state rival Milwaukee makes up the other team in the field for the InnTowner Invitational. 

“I think Badger fans are going to love the InnTowner Invitational that we’ve put together,” Sheffield said via statement. “Kansas returns almost its entire roster from a top-10 RPI team and should be even better this season. Bowling Green is another NCAA Tournament team that should also be better with seven of their top players coming back. Milwaukee is a team we played this spring and they are very well-coached, and gave us all that we could handle last month.”

The final non-conference battle takes place at the N.C. State Invitational where the Wolfpack will welcome the Badgers, VCU, and Colgate as well as the host Wolfpack. VCU and Colgate made it to the first round of last season's NCAA tournament. 

Big Ten play begins on Sept. 27-28 with Purdue and Indiana coming to the Fieldhouse that first weekend. Purdue finished last season with a 23-11 record and were one of seven NCAA tournament teams from the B1G. 

Here is the full schedule for the Badgers (via uwbadgers.com): 

Date	Opponent / Event	Location	Time / Result
08/24/13	vs. Cardinal vs. White Intrasquad #	Field House	TBA
Pepperdine Invitational
08/30/13	vs. Iona	Malibu, Calif.	7:00 pm
08/31/13	vs. Delaware	Malibu, Calif.	2:30 pm
	vs. Pepperdine	Malibu, Calif.	9:30 pm
North Dakota State Invitational
09/06/13	vs. Northern Iowa	Fargo, N.D.	TBA
09/07/13	vs. North Dakota State	Fargo, N.D.	TBA
09/07/13	vs. Louisville	Fargo, N.D.	TBA
InnTowner Invitational
09/13/13	Kansas vs. Milwaukee	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	4:30 pm
	Milwaukee vs. Bowling Green	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	4:30 pm
	vs. Bowling Green	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
09/14/13	vs. Milwaukee	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	10:00 am
	Bowling Green vs. Kansas	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	12:00 pm
	vs. Kansas	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
N.C. State Invitational
09/20/13	vs. North Carolina State	Raleigh, N.C.	6:00 pm
09/21/13	vs. VCU	Raleigh, N.C.	9:30 am
	vs. Colgate	Raleigh, N.C.	4:00 pm
09/27/13	vs. Purdue *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
09/28/13	vs. Indiana *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
10/02/13	at Iowa *	Iowa City, Iowa	7:00 pm
10/05/13	at Nebraska *	Lincoln, Neb.	7:00 pm
10/11/13	at Ohio State *	Columbus, Ohio	6:00 pm
10/12/13	at Penn State *	University Park, Pa.	7:30 pm
10/18/13	vs. Michigan *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
10/19/13	vs. Michigan State *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
10/23/13	vs. Minnesota *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
10/27/13	vs. Illinois *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	1:00 pm
11/01/13	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	6:00 pm
11/02/13	at Purdue *	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:00 pm
11/08/13	vs. Nebraska *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
11/10/13	vs. Iowa *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	1:00 pm
11/15/13	vs. Penn State *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	7:00 pm
11/17/13	vs. Ohio State *	UW Field House, Madison, Wis.	1:00 pm
11/22/13	at Michigan State *	East Lansing, Mich.	6:00 pm
11/23/13	at Michigan *	Ann Arbor, Mich.	6:00 pm
11/27/13	at Minnesota *	Minneapolis, Minn.	7:00 pm
11/30/13	at Northwestern *	Evanston, Ill.	7:00 pm
NCAA First & Second Rounds
12/06/13	TBD	TBA	TBA
12/07/13	TBD	TBA	TBA
NCAA Regional
12/13/13	TBD	TBA	TBA
12/14/13	TBD	TBA	TBA
NCAA Championship
12/19/13	TBD	Seattle, Wash.	TBA
12/21/13	TBD	Seattle, Wash.	TBA