The Wisconsin-Marquette volleyball rivalry gets bigger every season. Maybe even big enough for a match at Fiserv Forum.

The volleyball showdown between Wisconsin and Marquette has become an annual, circle-the-date matchup, and it seems to grow in importance every year.

This season's edition will have some added buzz when the sixth-ranked Badgers (1-1) host the No. 24 Golden Eagles (2-0) at 8 p.m. Friday at UW Field House in Madison. The match will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

For UW, the match represents a final celebration of the program’s 2021 national championship. Team members will receive their championship rings and see the unveiling of the championship banner, which will be dropped from the Field House rafters.

"I’m probably going to get chills,” UW junior Devyn Robinson said. “Hopefully I don’t get too emotional. I know some of the alumni are coming back. But it’s going to feel so good having that up there because we earned that.”

For MU, that environment will be a unique proving ground for a team that has already turned heads by upsetting then-No. 11 Kentucky on the road in the season opener.

"I’m not really intimidated by the banner, honestly," MU senior Carly Skrabak said. "I just think it’s more exciting."

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Internally, the Badgers turned the page on their championship season in January after the team was honored at Lambeau Field during the Green Bay Packers’ playoff loss to San Francisco.

“The recognition will continue, but the celebrating is done,” Sheffield told the team.

The work of moving on from last season’s team has been a major chemistry experiment. Of the team’s six new players, three – junior Caroline Crawford, sophomore Sarah Franklin and freshman Gulce Guctekin – start.

Add the team’s use of a 6-2 offense with senior Izzy Ashburn and junior MJ Hamill rotating in and out at setter and the Badgers enter the matchup with MU as a work in progress. Neither player was the starter last season.

“There is no shortcut to (chemistry),” Sheffield said. “That’s why you have the entire season. … It allows for development over time. It allows for growth. It’s a long season. It is going take some time to work through the connections.”

UW split its two matches last weekend in Fort Worth, Texas: A 3-0 win over TCU on Friday and a 3-2 loss to Baylor on Saturday.

Chemistry appears to have come quickly for MU despite the Golden Eagles having lost several key players from a team that was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season.

"I knew they were fun," Golden Eagles head coach Ryan Theis said. "Fun to watch. And I didn’t know last offseason how our first touch, our passing, would come around.

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"And I’ve just been really pleased how that has progressed through the course of two-a-days and even the second half of last spring I thought we got better at that skill. And it’s allowed us to be pretty quick offensively. But I’m sure we’ll have some tough serving to deal with this weekend that will make that a little tougher."

Skrabak took a star turn in the opening-weekend victories over Kentucky and Ohio, with the libero earning Big East defensive player of the week.

"I think I’ve just been really focused on just playing super clean and making sure the quality on my digs and passes are really good," Skrabak said. "So I’ve just been, over the spring, working on again just being super clean with my play and making sure that I make it easier for our players to set our hitters and making sure that I make things easier for our team.”

Wisconsin-Marquette volleyball has become annual tradition

MU outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton was the Gatorade state player of the year at Arrowhead High School in 2019. After two seasons at Notre Dame, she felt a pull back to Milwaukee.

“I wanted to be closer to home and I really loved Ryan and his philosophy and the whole volleyball program here," Hamilton said.

She attended several MU-UW matches growing up. Now she gets to play in one.

“I’m definitely excited and stoked," Hamilton said. "I’m nervous because I’m from Wisconsin and it’s a team from here. But other than that I’m just excited to crush it.”

UW is 21-1 in the series, with that one loss coming in 2019 at the Field House when MU rallied from a 2-0 deficit. This season's matchup marks the third time in the past four meetings that both teams are ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top 25.

The success of both programs has helped the rivalry become an anticipated annual matchup.

“Just competitive matches every year,” Sheffield said. “It’s just right down the road. It’s good for the state. It’s good for their program. It’s good for our program. We’re doing it at both places. I think it’s been a win-win for the programs. I think it’s been a win-win for the fans.”

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The relationship between the coaches also makes it an easy match to schedule. Sheffield was the coach at Dayton from 2008-12 before landing at UW. Theis led Ohio from 2008-13 before getting hired by MU.

"We’ve known each other quite a while now and I’ve got nothing but good things to say," Theis said. "I’ve done coaching clinics at his place and he’s done stuff over here and we schedule each other in the spring. And so we get along well.”

Theis wants to take the rivalry to even another level.

"If we can get that game one of these years at Fiserv (Forum) and get that place packed, I think that would be pretty meaningful," the MU coach said. "I think both teams are on board in trying to make that happen. It’s just got to work out.

"I think that helps and I think two quality opponents playing against each other in the non-con is good anyway.  And so Kelly has been great about wanting to doing it and I want to do it. So we keep going.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin unveiling volleyball championship banner against Marquette