Wisconsin volleyball hoisted a Big Ten championship trophy and finished with 19 straight wins to end the regular season. That feat gave the Badgers their highest ever seed in the NCA tournament, with UW coming as the No. 4 overall seed for the 2014 NCAA Championships.
It also means the Badgers will play host to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament, playing their games at the UW Field House. The matches will take place on Thursday-Friday.
“We’re excited to be playing back in the Field House,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to pack both of those matches.”
Wisconsin will host Western Michigan (22-13) in the nightcap at 7:30pm CT, while the other first round matchup will feature fellow in-state school, Marquette. The Golden Eagles (24-8) will take on Illinois State (26-5) in the opening match of the first round in Madison, Wis.
The Badgers come in to the NCAA tournament with an all-time tournament record of 34-17 (.644), and have made appearances in 17 NCAA tournaments overall.
However, the road to the NCAA title this season will be a rough one. Should the Badgers get out of Madison victorious later this week, they could end up seeing the only Big Ten team to beat them, Penn State in the Louisville regional final.
“There’s no easy one when the brackets come out but it’s not supposed to be easy,” said Sheffield of his team’s path to the NCAA championship in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “We have tough teams in our pod and the others look pretty challenging as well. We have to focus on what’s in front of us and get our team ready for the next match.”
All session tickets (all three games) go on sale tomorrow morning at 8:30am, while single-game tickets won’t go on sale until Thursday at 8:30am.
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