Ready to dance: Volleyball not looking ahead in NCAA tournament
December 03, 2014 | Volleyball
NCAA Tournament Central | NCAA Bracket (PDF)
Dec. 3, 2014
MADISON, Wis. -- Only 64 teams are still playing volleyball as the NCAA tournament bracket was announced on Sunday. After this week, that number will be down to 32 then 16 and so on until only one team remains. For the Badgers, their goal is to be the last team standing.
“We're obviously very excited to still be playing,” head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “This is an unbelievable time of year, 64 teams still playing for their season. It's a gift with how hard our players have worked to get to this point.”
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For fourth-seeded Wisconsin, the first step towards the NCAA championship starts this week as UW hosts first and second round matches on Thursday-Friday in the UW Field House. Marquette (24-8) and Illinois State (26-5) play the opening match on Thursday at 5 p.m. while Wisconsin (28-2) takes on Western Michigan (22-13) in the second match at 7:30 p.m. Winners advance to the second-round match on Friday at 7 p.m. The second-round winner advances to the Louisville Regional on Dec. 12-13.
“We've got our hands full with three really good teams coming in,” said Sheffield. “Western Michigan from a good Mid-American Conference; they're tournament tested. Illinois State (is a) very, very experienced team. (They) went undefeated in a really good Missouri Valley Conference. They've got seniors up and down their lineup and Marquette … boy, are they talented. It should be a great Thursday and Friday match up, and we're excited to be hosting it.”
Western Michigan was the upset winner of the MAC tournament, downing top-seeded Ohio (3-2) in the semifinals and third-seeded Miami (3-2) in the finals to earn the conference’s automatic bid.
Marquette is one of three Big East teams in the NCAA tournament. The Golden Eagles were the No. 3 seed in their conference tournament, losing to Seton Hall in the semifinals.
Illinois State went undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference at 18-0 and also won the league tournament with a 3-2 win over Missouri State and a 3-1 win over Northern Iowa.
The Badgers enter the NCAA tournament on a 19-match winning streak, claiming the Big Ten Conference with a 19-1 mark. Wisconsin earned its highest tournament seed in program history at fourth but UW isn’t looking past its first match.
“We will talk about one step at a time, who is in front of you,” Sheffield said. “We'll probably give them a bracket of four teams and that's our bracket. Its four teams and two matches. … but to me when you get into the NCAA tournament, you’ve got a four-team bracket. You win that mini tournament and you go into another team bracket, which will be at Louisville, Kentucky. So we will worry about anybody else when we get to that point.”
Wisconsin is the top seed in the Louisville Regional, which will take place in the KFC Yum Center on Dec. 12-13. While the team isn’t looking ahead, fans know the Badgers could be playing fourth-ranked Penn State, the only team that beat UW this season in Big Ten play, in a rematch of last season’s NCAA championship in this year’s regional final.
“Well, there are cemeteries filled with people that were looking ahead,” said Sheffield with his usual humor. “That would be foolish on our part to do that and that would be so out of character of our group to do that. This isn't Major League Baseball or the NBA where it's the best of seven. You've got one shot at a night, and that shot might last about two hours, and you better be able to play your game during those two hours.
“This is the best time of the year, not just for us, but in any sport when you get to this. … what a great time for Badger athletics right now! It's awesome! I don't want our players to be thinking that far ahead, because these are some of the best days of their entire life.”
