Huskies Headed For Madison For NCAA Opener

SEATTLE – Washington Volleyball earned its 21st-consecutive NCAA Championships bid today and is bound for Madison, Wisc. for the tourney’s first weekend. The Huskies received one of the four No. 8 seeds in the 64-team field, and will take on TCU on Friday, Dec. 2, at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time at Wisconsin’s UW Field House.
 
Following Washington and TCU’s first round showdown, No. 1-seed Wisconsin, the defending NCAA Champion, will take on Quinnipiac. The winners will then play on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 4 p.m. Pacific for a place in the regional semis. All first and second round matches will be live streamed.
 
New for this year, the top 32 teams are seeded nationally in pods of four and placed within four regions. Per the established bracketing principles, the top seeds are provided the opportunity to host. Additionally, team pairings are determined within the pods (ones paired with eights, twos paired with sevens, threes paired with sixes and fours paired with fives) and assigned geographically within their pods, with the exception that teams from the same conference are not paired during the first- and second-rounds.
 
This is Washington’s 27th tournament appearance and 21st in a row, going back to the 2002 season. The Huskies finished the regular season at 20-10 and fifth in the Pac-12 with a 12-8 conference record. Washington dealt with its share of adversity through the year, with multiple injuries that kept the lineup in flux, but UW was led throughout by senior All-Americans Ella May Powell, Claire Hoffman, and Marin Grote, who all bring a wealth of NCAA tournament success.
 
It’s the first time UW has traveled for the opening rounds of the tournament since 2018, the freshman season for the current seniors, when UW was able to get an upset in the second round at Creighton to reach the round of 16.
 
“A lot of excitement as it’s the first time in a while where we haven’t known exactly what we’d be doing in the first weekend,” said Head Coach Keegan Cook. “Thrilled to be headed somewhere where we’ve competed before, against a really solid team from the Big 12.”
 
Many of the current Huskies have played in Madison, as the Huskies got a big road win over the…