If you come to a Badger volleyball match this fall in the UW Field House and are a little confused as to whether you're in the right place, don't worry, you are. Things may look a little different once you get inside but you are still at the nearly 80-year-old Field House and will still see the same quality Badger volleyball.

What you will no longer see is the black and red Sport Court that has been the playing surface for volleyball team for the last 11 years. Instead, a bright hardwood floor with the hard-to-miss motion W at center court will greet fans as they file into the bleachers.

While this floor looks new to many, technically, it is the old floor that underwent a beautiful transformation. The floor, which was the old Field House basketball court, went through a month-long change as a crew sanded down the old floor, fixed some of the wood and re-painted the surface with volleyball now taking center court. The floor can still be used for basketball games as the lines for the lanes and three-point arcs can be painted in.

'It's kind of a whole face lift for the Field House,' UW head volleyball coach Pete Waite said. 'I've loved the Sport Court and it 's the only thing I've had since I've been here. I know for a lot of our fans, it will be something new for them, but for our long-term fans, it 's going back to what they first knew. For people who were former basketball fans in the Field House, they'll see the wood floor down there again and that will be pretty nice.'

As Waite mentioned, this is not the first time the Badger volleyball team has played on a hardwood surface at the Field House. Prior to the installation of the Sport Court in 1998, Wisconsin used the basketball court with the volleyball lines painted in as its playing surface.

While the Badgers' Sport Court has been one of the more memorable playing surfaces in collegiate volleyball, it was time for a change.

'Sport Court is pretty expensive to replace and I would say a majority of collegiate teams play on wood now,' Waite said. 'I think there was a big trend with Sport Court in the mid-to-late 90s but many teams are switching back to wood. I think this transition will definitely save our workers some time with lifting up and putting down the Sport Court.'

While the Sport Court stayed down most of the year, Field House facility workers would have to lift up the floor and store it before any basketball camps and games, including the annual holiday tournament.

Removing the floor was easy compared to the all-day event of putting it back down in time for the volleyball team to practice or play. Since the team technically had two Sport Courts (one went underneath the pull-out bleachers on the east side of the building), the secondary court had to come up before any home volleyball match, which took about three hours.

The volleyball Badgers will still have two courts for practice as the refinishing actually corrected the alignment of the secondary court. Two regulation-sized basketball courts will also be available for camps and clinics.

The lifetime of a Sport Court is around 10 years so the Badgers' court was coming to the end of its life, another reason for replacement. A new Sport Court would have cost between $70,000 to $80,000 while the refinishing of the floor cost around $20,000.

The money saved went into replacing some of the old fiberglass bleachers on the west side of the court, many of which were broken or sagging. The new aluminum bleachers have a red vinyl wrap to blend in with old bleachers. There will also be the possibility of renting seat backs, like those currently available in Camp Randall Stadium, to ticket holders in the future.

The new bleachers were the finishing touches on this summer's Field House upgrade. Additional bleachers will hopefully be added to the north and south end zones in the future.

If you can't wait until the volleyball season to see the new floor at the UW Field House, check out the photo gallery.