Match info
- No. 3 Wisconsin (25-4, 17-3 Big Ten) vs. Howard (26-5, 12-0 MEAC)
- 7:30 p.m. CT, Thursday, December 1
- Madison, Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Badgers seem determined to continually outdo themselves this season.
Wisconsin (25-4, 17-3 Big Ten) will enter its 20th NCAA Tournament at No. 3 — the highest seed in program history.
The Badgers were ranked No. 1 in the AVCA poll for the first time ever in mid-October. They got out to a program-best 14-1 start, with their only loss at the time coming to North Carolina in five sets on September 9.
They ended the regular season at No. 3, finishing with a five-set loss to Minnesota on Saturday.
“We’re certainly excited to have one of the top-four seeds,” head coach Kelly Sheffield, who won his 100th career game in October, said in a Wisconsin Athletics press release. “We’re planning on trying to play as well as we can possibly play.”
Senior setter Lauren Carlini will be a player to watch for Wisconsin — she’s fifth in the NCAA in assists per set with 11.77.
“We have a chance to win this thing,” she told the Wisconsin State Journal. “We know we have the capability to do so and it’s not really going to be about who’s on the other side of the net. It’s about are we playing our best volleyball because if we’re playing our best volleyball it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
Wisconsin will host Howard (26-5) in the first-round match on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. local time. It will host the second round match on Friday as well — should Wisconsin win, it would face the winner of Marquette-Washington State.
The Final Four will be December 15 and 17 in Columbus, Ohio.
The reaction of a team that just found out they're the No. 3 seed, the best in program history! #letsdance #BRINGIT
Posted by Wisconsin Volleyball on Sunday, November 27, 2016
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