As the team prepared for their end-of-practice stretching, Wisconsin volleyball head coach Kelly Sheffield walked over to his iPod plugged into the speaker-system at the UW Field House and started blasting “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

He wants his team to be loose heading into its Sweet 16 matchup against Big Ten rival Ohio State this Friday in Louisville, Kentucky.

“We’re loose, we’re excited, we’re confident,” senior middle blocker Dominique Thompson said. “We’re hungry.”

But they are also “really, really focused,” freshman outside hitter Kelli Bates said.

The Badgers (30-2, 19-1 Big Ten) won both meetings against Ohio State (23-11, 12-8 Big Ten) during regular season play, sweeping the Buckeyes on both occasions on Sept. 28 and Nov. 21, respectively.

The Sept. 28 victory began UW’s current 21-match winning streak. The Buckeyes only came within six points of the Badgers by the end of a frame in only one of the six sets played between the two teams.

The Buckeyes are coming off first and second round tournament wins against Lipscomb (3-0) and No. 13 Kentucky (3-1). However, several on the UW team insist the wins against OSU in the regular season aren’t significant come tournament time because they said UW never caught the Buckeyes at their best, in either match.

“They’ve been competing at a really high level even since we played them the second time,” sophomore middle blocker Haleigh Nelson said. “So I think we’ll probably see some different things from them this third time around.”

Thompson agreed.

“I think they have more to show us than they showed us the two times we saw them this year,” Thompson said. “I can’t wait to watch film on that and get into the match.”

For Sheffield, the familiarity between the two teams has its advantages and disadvantages.

Studying the two matches from earlier in the season, Sheffield said OSU looked very different then than they do now; one of their best players was just coming back from injury.

“When you get into the tournament, you better be ready to play your best match. Our emphasis is that we’re going to be trying to play our best volleyball of the year, regardless of who our opponent is,” Sheffield said. “The team that they played this past weekend looked different than the team we played a few weeks ago.”

The injured player Sheffield referred to was senior setter Taylor Sherwin, who puts up 10.06 assists per set. Leading the way on offense for the Buckeyes is senior outside hitter Erin Sekinger, who averages 3.17 kills per set. Junior outside hitter Elizabeth Campbell chips in 2.79 kills per set for the Buckeyes as well.

Sekinger and Campbell each had 16 kills in the OSU win over Kentucky in the second round.

Sophomore middle blocker Taylor Sanbothe leads the Buckeyes in blocking, averaging 1.17 per set and chips in offensively with 2.62 kills per set.

With Wisconsin returning all but one of their starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament run, this team’s experience will help them focus on the task at hand instead of getting distracted.

“We didn’t really know about time constraints at practice or making sure we were wearing right-sized Adidas logos,” Nelson said. “So I think that the logistics, now that we’re used to those, it just makes it that much easier to focus on the game.”

Bates said although she wasn’t a part of last year’s run, she feels motivated by her teammates to pull her weight this time around.

“They’re all kind of carrying me around with them because they want the national championship so bad,” Bates said. “It just makes it all worth it because they’re so motivated and I just follow along.”

If the Badgers advance past the Sweet 16, the winner of No. 5 Penn State and No. 12 UCLA awaits them, setting up a potential rematch of last season’s National Championship match against the Nittany Lions.

Big Ten Freshman of the Year Ali Frantti leads Penn State with 3.27 kills per set. Senior setter Micha Hancock averages 11.49 assists per set as well as 1.05 service aces per set.

If UCLA takes out Penn State, Wisconsin will have their hands full with senior outside hitter Karsta Lowe, who ranks number one in the nation with 5.92 kills per set.

But before the Badgers can think about either of those teams, they must take care of Ohio State Friday night at 4 p.m. (CST) at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. The match will be televised on ESPN3.