The University of Wisconsin volleyball team is about to embark on an NCAA tournament journey that will let the Badgers know if there truly is no place like home.

The Badgers, seeded seventh in the field of 64, will open their 12th straight tournament run Friday night at 7 with a first-round match against Northern Iowa, the first of what the Badgers are hoping will be four matches at the UW Field House.

The winner of that match will then play Saturday night against the winner of Friday night 's first match between Iowa State and San Diego.

The next weekend (Dec. 7-9) will feature third- and fourth-round matches at the Field House with a field that could include defending national champion Nebraska, coached by former UW coach John Cook.

Nebraska, seeded second behind Stanford in the field, faces South Dakota State in the first round and the winner of Wichita State and Western Kentucky in Lincoln this weekend.

"I'd rather see them here than anywhere else," said UW coach Pete Waite, looking ahead to a potential match that would determine the Final Four representative from the Madison region.

The Final Four is being played at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

But the last thing Waite wants to do is let the Badgers get ahead of themselves. He knows there are two matches here this weekend that will determine whether the ninth-ranked Badgers will advance and try to take advantage of their home court in the regional.

"They know these teams aren't cupcakes," he said when asked if he is concerned that the Badgers might be looking ahead. "We'll make sure they're not looking farther than this next match."

The Badgers, who are 11-2 at home this year with losses coming to tournament-bound Michigan State and Penn State, are 21-2 overall at home in the NCAA tournament. They lost a second-round match to Miami in 2002 and a regional final match to Florida in 1997. Since that loss to Miami, the Badgers have won six straight tournament matches in the Field House.

"There are a lot less hassles when you don't have to travel," senior libero Jocelyn Wack said following the tournament announcement. "We definitely had our fingers crossed that this would happen. We just love playing at the Field House."

The Badgers also received another advantage from the selection committee, though this one probably wasn't as cut and dried as playing host to the first two weekends of tournament play. UW (25-4) already has defeated Northern Iowa (22-10) this season in an early-season tournament at Provo, Utah. Northern Iowa made the 64-team field by winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

In the next round, the Badgers could face an Iowa State team coached by former UW assistant Christy Johnson. The Cyclones lost to the Badgers in the second round last year. Johnson also had her team at the Field House during the spring season.

The Badgers also defeated San Diego in four games in a match last season.

"It's strange how things work out," Waite said. "We know these teams. That's always nice."

The Big Ten Conference landed six teams in the field. Besides UW and Penn State, which is seeded third overall and can also play four matches at home en route to the Final Four, Purdue, Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State received bids. The Spartans are in the bottom half of the Madison regional and would have to get by Nebraska to advance to Madison.

Other teams that could advance to the Field House for the round of 16 are Duke, American, California, Liberty, Dayton, Libscomb and Kentucky. Cal is seeded 10th in the field and Dayton 15th.

In addition to Madison and Lincoln, first and second rounds that feed to the Field House regional are being played at Durham, N.C., and Dayton, Ohio.