The I-94 rivalry is headed back to Fiserv Forum.
No, it won’t be a men’s basketball game coached by Shaka Smart and Greg Gard but instead Marquette head coach Ryan Theis and Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield squaring off once again.
For the second time in the past three seasons, Marquette volleyball will welcome Wisconsin to Fiserv Forum. The match is set to take place on Sept. 17, 2025.
“It’s awesome,” Theis said when asked about the opportunity to play at Fiserv again. “25 years of doing this and being a guy from Wisconsin, quite possibly one of the most memorable moments of my career, to be able to come out in front of 17, 18,000 people, it was awesome.”
The Golden Eagles and Badgers played in front of 17,037 fans at Fiserv Forum on Sept. 13, 2023, still an NCAA attendance record for an indoor regular season game. It remains a state record for attendance at a women’s sporting event and ranks as the 15th-most attended NCAA women’s volleyball match ever (including NCAA tournament play).
“For the team, we use it in recruiting, it’s such a neat experience for them,” Theis said. “I don’t think any of them, when they said they wanted to play college volleyball when they were 13 or 14 thought they’d get to do it in that environment.
“It’s really great for the program and we’re happy to be back.”
This past fall, Fiserv Forum also played host to the State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase, which included Wisconsin and some of the nation’s other top teams.
The showcase drew as many as 14,035 fans for a match between the Badgers and Texas, marking another successful event inside the walls of Fiserv. With all the success that the city of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin has had drawing people in to watch women’s volleyball in recent years, Milwaukee has become an increasingly enticing destination for the NCAA Final Four in Volleyball.
“We would love it,” Theis said. “I don’t know enough about the bidding and the process of the NCAA. My understanding is that it’s happened.
“Northwestern Mutual is big in NCAA … clearly have a headquarters here. So, we hope it will someday get here. And I think we will keep trying to get it. That stuff is just a little above my pay grade.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.