Kentucky, U of L need two wins each to set up Final Four volleyball matchup in Louisville
Sixteen teams remain on the road to the NCAA women’s volleyball Final Four in Louisville later this month, and two of those teams are from the commonwealth.
The University of Kentucky secured its spot in the Sweet 16 with victories last week over Cleveland State and Minnesota on its home court in Memorial Coliseum. The University of Louisville whipped Chicago State and Northern Iowa at the KFC Yum! Center, the same site that will host the national semifinals and finals Dec. 19 and 22.
The competition ramps up for the Wildcats (22-7) and Cardinals (27-5) this week.
Kentucky will head to Pittsburgh, where it will confront Southeastern Conference rival Missouri on Thursday and, if it wins, either Pittsburgh or Oregon on Saturday.
The Cardinals will stay home in Louisville this week but move operations to Freedom Hall, where it takes on Purdue on Thursday. A win brings a Saturday matchup against either Stanford or Florida.
Kentucky’s path
The Wildcats defeated Missouri twice during the regular season, 3-0 in Lexington on Oct. 6 and 3-1 in Columbia on Nov. 27. The Tigers (22-8) eliminated the No. 2 seed in the regional, SMU, last weekend and have won 13 of their last 16 matches.
Pittsburgh (31-1) is the regional’s No. 1 seed and the No. 1-ranked team in the nation in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. The Panthers’ only loss took place Oct. 12 at SMU.
Pittsburgh beat Kentucky twice during the 2023 regular season, a Panthers campaign that ended in the national semifinals.
Kentucky, which won the Southeastern Conference for the eighth year in a row in 2024, is the No. 3 seed in the regional and brings a 13-match winning streak into its showdown with No. 7 seed Missouri. The match is set for 1 p.m. Thursday (ESPN2) in Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center. No. 4 Oregon (24-7) will face the host team 30 minutes after the UK-Missouri match.
Louisville’s path
The Cardinals, the No. 1 seed in their region, did not collide with Purdue during the regular season. The Boilermakers, who finished fourth in the Big Ten this season, are the region’s No. 4 seed and stand 27-6 after NCAA wins last week over Western Michigan and Loyola Chicago.
Stanford, the region’s No. 2 seed, poses a serious potential threat to the Cardinals if both teams reach the round of eight. Stanford (27-4) tied Louisville for second place in the ACC behind Pittsburgh this season and split its two regular season meetings with U of L, losing 3-0 in Louisville on Sept. 29, then winning 3-1 in the regular-season finale at Stanford on Nov. 30.
Standing between a Louisville-Stanford grudge match is Florida (23-7), the regional’s No. 6 seed. The Gators, who tied for third in the SEC with Missouri, beat North Carolina State then knocked off No. 3 seed Kansas last week.
The Stanford-Florida match takes place at 7 p.m. in Freedom Hall. Louisville-Purdue (ESPN2) gets underway 30 minutes after that game.
The rest of the field
Should Kentucky and Louisville both survive this week’s Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, they would go head-to-head in the national semifinals.
The other side of the bracket will deliver the champions from the Penn State Regional and the Nebraska Regional.
At Penn State, the No. 1 Nittany Lions will square off against No. 5 Marquette, and No. 3 Texas will face No. 2 Creighton on Friday. Texas, which finished second in the SEC, is the two-time defending national champion.
At Nebraska on Friday, the No. 1 Cornhuskers will host No. 5 Dayton. No. 2 Wisconsin will take on No. 6 Texas A&M.
The SEC opened the 64-team tournament with nine schools in the field. Five are still alive in the Sweet 16 round.
The Big Ten also started with nine and has five in the Sweet 16. Only three of the ACC’s original nine are still in the running.