Kentucky volleyball on a roll entering NCAA tourney. Here’s the Wildcats’ path to a title.
The University of Kentucky volleyball team will take an 11-match winning streak into the NCAA Tournament this week and begin its pursuit of a national championship at home.
The Wildcats, who will be making their 20th consecutive NCAA appearance, were assigned the No. 3 seed in their 16-team regional on Sunday night and host a four-team sub-regional in Memorial Coliseum on Thursday and Friday with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16.
Kentucky, champion of the Southeastern Conference for the eighth year in a row, will face Horizon League Tournament champion Cleveland State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. after a match between Western Kentucky and Minnesota at 4:30 p.m. in Lexington.
UK is one of eight seeded teams in their regional, along with No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 2 SMU, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 TCU, No. 6 Minnesota, No. 7 Missouri and No. 8 Oklahoma.
The winner of Kentucky’s sub-regional will face the winner of the SMU sub-regional in the Sweet 16.
UK (20-7) has not lost a match since Oct. 13 when it was swept 3-0 at home by two-time defending national champion Texas. The Longhorns were also seeded No. 3 in their regional and could not meet UK again until the Final Four if both teams were to continue winning.
Cleveland State brings a 23-9 record to Memorial Coliseum after finishing third in the Horizon League regular season then winning three conference tournament matches to secure an automatic NCAA berth.
Western Kentucky is 28-6 overall after going 18-0 in Conference USA and winning the league tournament. Kentucky beat WKU 3-1 on Aug. 31.
Minnesota (20-10) received an at-large bid after tying for sixth in the Big Ten. The Gophers could be dangerous, having posted an early-season win over Texas and knocking off perennial Big Ten power Wisconsin.
The SEC, Big Ten and ACC each placed nine schools in the NCAA Tournament. Joining Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas in the 64-team field are Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
Six of the seven teams that beat Kentucky this season are in the tournament and all earned top-four seeds.
Louisville, Nebraska and Penn State are No. 1 seeds. Stanford is a No. 2, Texas a No. 3 and Purdue a No. 4.
Louisville and Morehead State were the only other schools from Kentucky to join UK in earning NCAA bids.
The Cardinals (25-5) will also host a sub-regional. No. 8 seed Northern Iowa (25-7) will play Illinois (18-12) at 4 p.m. at the KFC Yum Center, followed by Louisville against Chicago State (19-7) at 7 p.m.
Morehead State (18-14) heads to Pittsburgh to take on the top-seeded Panthers on Friday at 7 p.m. in a sub-regional that also includes UTEP and No. 8 seed Oklahoma.
All-SEC honors for Kentucky
Kentucky outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye was named the 2024 SEC Player of the Year and Craig Skinner the league’s Coach of the Year on Sunday in a vote of conference coaches.
DeLeye was joined on the All-SEC first team by Emma Grome. Molly Tuozzo earned second-team recognition. Asia Thigpen and Brooke Bultema made the All-Freshman Team.
DeLeye joins Sarah Rumley (2008), Leah Edmond (2018, 2019), Madison Lilley (2020), Alli Stumler (2021) and Emma Grome (2022) as winners of the conference’s top honor.
Skinner, who earned his 300th career win in UK’s regular season finale, was voted SEC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row and sixth time in his career.
This week
What: NCAA Volleyball Tournament sub-regional
Where: Memorial Coliseum in Lexington
TV: ESPN+
Thursday
4:30 p.m.: Western Kentucky vs. Minnesota
7:30 p.m.: Cleveland State vs. Kentucky
Friday
7 p.m.: Thursday’s winners meet