The Wisconsin volleyball team has earned a bid to the NCAA tournament, nabbing the No. 2 seed in the Nebraska regional. The Badgers are set to play Fairfield and host the first and second-round matches on Thursday and Friday in the UW Field House.
The Badgers have now made the NCAA tournament for the 12th straight season and for the 28th time in program history.
“You play the entire regular season to kind of prepare yourself for the NCAA tournament and this is probably the deepest that I’ve ever seen the tournament. I mean, the number of teams that I could see getting into a regional final or a final four is probably the most that I could ever remember,” says head coach Kelly Sheffield. “You’ve got to be really, really good at just taking one week at a time, one little mini-tournament at a time.
“We’re trending in the right direction, which is certainly what you want to be doing this time of the year,” adds Sheffield. “It feels like we’re knocking on the door of just putting things together.”
No. 7 Georgia Tech (20-9) takes on Tennessee (15-11) in the opening first-round match on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. before Wisconsin (23-6) faces off against Fairfield (21-11) at 7 p.m. First-round winners advance to the second round of the tournament on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Field House.
Nine Big Ten Conference teams made it into the NCAA tournament with Penn State and Nebraska earning top seeds in the tournament.
