Wisconsin Seeded Sixth for NCAA Championship
November 26, 2001 | Volleyball
The University of Wisconsin volleyball team is seeded sixth nationally for the 2001 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship. The Badgers (25-3) received the second seed in Region 3 and will play host to first and second-round matches on Friday-Saturday, Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in the UW Field House.
Wisconsin, the Big Ten Conference champion, will take on UW-Milwaukee (20-7), the Horizon League champion, in the first round on Friday at 7 p.m. in the UW Field House. Big Ten foe Michigan State (20-7) will take on Notre Dame (22-6), the Big East Champion, in the other first-round match on Friday at 5 p.m. The winners will play at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Field House for the right to advance to the regional. Stanford, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, is scheduled to host the regional provided it wins its first and second-round matches. Other teams seeded in the regional are Texas A&M (23-5) as the No. 11 team and Utah (23-6) as the No. 14 team.
'It's the new season for us now,' said UW coach Pete Waite on NCAA Tournament. 'I know the team was very focused on winning the Big Ten and that was important for us. But now, as we really know who we're playing and how short the season is from here on out, they're really going to be focused in practices and really get after people in the matches."
The Badgers, who are 16-9 in the NCAA Tournament, will be making their sixth consecutive and 10th overall appearance in the championship. Wisconsin finished second in the 2000 NCAA Championship, it's best finish ever.
'I think it's going to help a lot,' said Waite of his team's experience in the 2000 tournament. 'It makes our team hungry for getting to the final four again. They know it's a hard road. They know they have to battle every night. As we focus on this first weekend, Friday night and hopefully Saturday night in front of our fans, knowing it's the last night in front of our fans this year, they're going to really get after things.
'I think our kids, even if things are not going well, will stay focused and that's an important thing that they learned from the final four, ' said Waite. 'But they also learned that anything can happen along the way and they will fight so hard to not take a loss or not take a loss of any point along the way that they can. They're just going to try and win every single volley and battle for everything they have before the last time they have Sherisa Livingston or Lizzy Fitzgerald on the court for us.'
