BY AJ HARRISON
UW Athletic Communications

MADISON, Wis. — So far this season, the Wisconsin women's hockey team has scratched off two items on its checklist — winning the WCHA regular-season title and the WCHA Final Face-Off.

The quest to check off the final box — capturing the NCAA crown — begins this Saturday as the No. 1 Badgers welcome No. 8 Robert Morris to LaBahn Arena for an NCAA quarterfinal.

"With our playoff system, everybody's back at the starting gates," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "Now we've got eight teams at the starting gate and we'll know in a couple weeks who's going to hoist the national championship trophy."

The Badgers open this year's NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed, marking the first time since the 2012 national championship that UW has held that ranking heading into the eight-team tourney. The No. 1 ranking is something the Badgers have had to deal with all year, but the players and staff try to make sure the pressure doesn't get to them.

"We knew we were going to be up near the top with the personnel we had coming back from last year's Frozen Four team," Johnson said. "You find out you're going to be number one and then it's 'Okay, we need to practice today, we need to get better.' I think if it comes from the top, it comes from the coaching staff, and as I've talked about most of the year, our leadership is good.

"The players understand what we're trying to do and they've been able to focus in on the process and really focus in on what's most important next."

What's next for the Badgers is a battle against the No. 8 Colonials, the College Hockey American regular season and tournament champions. RMU will make its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance on Saturday, while UW and RMU haven't met since the 2010-11 season.

"They're having a great year," Johnson said. "They've played Clarkson and have done well against them. You take a couple days to try and figure out who they look like, but probably the most important thing is what we're capable of doing and playing at our level, playing our A game. If we do that, that should be confidence enough that it'll give us the best chance to win."
 
"Robert Morris is going to give us their best game and we all look forward to the atmosphere," captain Sydney McKibbon said. "Both teams are going to be fighting for their season and it will be a lot of fun."
 
Tickets for Saturday's 2 p.m. game went on sale Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. and were gone by lunchtime the same day. There will even be a bigger crowd than normal as standing-room only tickets were sold and more than 2400 fans are expected to fill LaBahn Arena. Fans can also catch the game broadcast live on the Wisconsin Channel.
 
"This is exciting for our senior class to be able to play at LaBahn one last time," McKibbon, one of six seniors, said. "It's going to be bittersweet, but we can't wait to play one last time in front of the greatest fans in the nation!

"We can't wait to see LaBahn rocking Saturday afternoon."