Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield donates 1,000 tickets for Friday’s Sweet Sixteen matchup

Wisconsin volleyball drew a tough time slot for Friday’s Sweet Sixteen match with Big Ten rival Ohio State at the Field House. Due to TV considerations, the Badgers-Buckeyes match starts at 1 p.m. CST, not the most conducive time to continue the streak of packed houses Wisconsin has enjoyed at home of late.

Enter coach Kelly Sheffield and his wife Cathy.

On Monday, Sheffield announced that they have donated 1,000 tickets for Wisconsin students to attend the match. Students interested should pick up the tickets at the UW Athletic Ticket Office on Friday between 8:30 a.m. and noon (while supplies last). A WISCard is needed and students can only pick up one ticket per person.

If you are not a student or if you want to be guaranteed to get in on Friday, tickets for the regional go on sale Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. The UW athletic department advises that, per NCAA rules, only all-session ticket packages (for both Friday and Saturday matches) are available for purchase until Friday. Reserved seats are $18; general admission tickets are $14 for adults or $10 for youth and senior citizens.

If Wisconsin defeats Ohio State, it will play the winner of No. 6 overall seed Stanford/Florida State in the regional finals Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Field House.

Six of eight Big Ten teams advanced to the regionals and three Big Ten teams (No. 1 seed Nebraska, No. 2 seed Minnesota and No. 3 seed Wisconsin) host third/fourth-round matches. The conference is guaranteed to place at least two teams in the round of eight.

In addition to Wisconsin-Ohio State, Nebraska hosts seven-time champion No. 16 seed Penn State in a matchup of the winners of the past three tournaments. In the Austin regional, No. 12 seed Michigan faces Creighton, which upset No. 5 seed Kansas in the round of 32. In the Minneapolis regional, No. 2 seed Minnesota takes on No. 15 seed Missouri, which eliminated Purdue last Friday in Columbia.