The No. 20 Spartan volleyball team will return to familiar ground when it makes its eighth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

The No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers host the tournament’s sub-regional action and received the tournament’s sixth seed.

The Spartans begin tournament play Friday when they square up with the No. 25 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame owns a 22-6 record and went 12-0 in winning the Big East Conference title.

The Spartans last faced the Irish on Sept. 10, 2000, when they defeated Notre Dame 3-2 in South Bend.

If the Spartans get past the Irish and the Badgers defeat their first-round opponent, Wisconsin-Milwaukee (20-7), it would be the third time MSU faces Wisconsin, with the Badgers holding a 2-0 lead in the season series.

But head coach Chuck Erbe said he isn’t discouraged by the statistics.

“It’s a doable thing for us,” Erbe said. “We’re a much better team, much stronger and mentally tougher team than we were previously against Wisconsin, but that’s not to minimize the task at hand - Notre Dame.

“We’ll stay focused on them, because they’re definitely a very solid team and it’ll be very competitive. It’s a very strong first and second round bracket.”

Eight teams from the Big 12 will be competing in the tournament, two more than any other conference. The Big Ten and the Pac-10 each send six schools to the tourney and the Mountain West and the Big West will send four schools each.

Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois join the Spartans and the Badgers in the tournament.

Grabbing the top four seeds in the tournament are No. 1 Long Beach State, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Stanford and No. 4 Southern Cal.