After claiming its second straight Big Ten championship, the Wisconsin volleyball team secured a spot in the NCAA tournament’s field of 64.
On Monday, they found out exactly where they stood. The Badgers, seeded sixth overall, garnered a No. 2 seed in Region 3 and will host the first two rounds this weekend.
UW, who is making their sixth straight appearance in the tournament and their tenth overall, is 16-9 all-time in the NCAA tournament.
Last season Wisconsin advanced to the championship match where they eventually took runner-up honors to Nebraska — their best-ever finish.
The Badgers will look to last year’s tournament success to prepare for their ultimate goal –an NCAA championship.
“I think the players who return from last season see how hard it is to get into the Final Four,” said head coach Pete Waite. “Everything has to happen just the right way, so all we can do is prepare and be healthy and happy going into every match.”
The Badgers (25-3) will face off with Horizon League champion UW-Milwaukee (20-7) on Friday night. The other two teams taking to the court at the UW Field House are Michigan State and Notre Dame. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Wisconsin/UW-Milwaukee match on Saturday night.
The coaches and players are looking at the tournament as the start of a whole new season.
“It’s definitely a whole new season,” said senior all-American and all-conference Sherisa Livingston. “The people who were seniors and juniors that were here last year will take that taste of being there and almost winning and use that as motivation and fuel to push us on. We really want to win, and we think that is within our grasp.”
Fellow senior Lizzy Fitzgerald agreed with her teammate.
“I think we’ve done so much this season and have to be grateful for and proud of, but really going into this tournament none of that matters,” said Fitzgerald. “We start all over right now and play every game like it’s your last, so we start from the beginning now.”
The road to the top will not be easy, though. In order to get into the Final Four for the second straight year, the Badgers will have to do it on the road. Since UW will only host the first two rounds, they will more than likely have to head to Palo Alto, California where the top seeded team in the region, Stanford, will have home court advantage. Other seeded teams in the region include Texas A&M (11th) and Utah (14th).
Not having home-court advantage throughout regional action sent a wave of disappointment among the Badger players and fans, but the team is taking it in stride.
“I am a little disappointed, because one of our goals was to host,” said Livingston. “But like I told everyone else, we’re going after a national championship, and if that means not hosting and not being at home is fine with us.”
The rest of the tournament will have to go through undefeated No. 1 seed Long Beach State and No. 4 USC.
Defending national champs Nebraska received the No. 2 seed, but for unknown reasons will not be hosting first and second round action. However, the Cornhuskers could still possibly host regional action.
Regional action will be hosted by the top-seeded team left in the region, which means the door is still open for UW.
While some players commented that they would not complain if upsets gave Wisconsin an easier schedule to play, Livingston thought otherwise.
“I definitely want to play the best teams out there,” she said. “I don’t want to cakewalk through it, I want to earn it.”
They definitely earned these
On Monday Big Ten honors were announced. Leading the way for UW was senior setter Lizzy Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was named the Big Ten Player of the Year. Head coach Pete Waite was tabbed by the media as the Coach of the Year. Along with Fitzgerald, Livingston was the unanimous choice for first-team all Big Ten. Junior outside hitter Erin Byrd received an honorable mention, while freshman Jill Odenthal was named to the all-freshmen team.
Other conference honors included Defensive Player of the Year for Illinois’ Shadia Haddad, while her head coach Don Hardin was named coach of the year from his peers after leading the Illini to a 17-7 record, a huge difference from last year’s 10th-place conference finish. Ohio State’s Stacy Gordon was named Freshman of the Year.
Fitzgerald reflected on her newly bestowed honor.
“It’s a huge honor to be named Player of the Year,” she said. “I think it says a lot about our team and everything we’ve done. It also says a lot about our strengths, which have always been defense and ball control.”
