The NCAA women’s volleyball tournament is here! The first two rounds of the 64-team tournament are taking place this Thursday through Sunday. All roads lead toward the national title game on Dec. 22 in Louisville. Speaking of Louisville, the Cardinals are one of the four teams to receive a 1-seed — the others are Nebraska, Pitt, and Penn State.
Two-time defending champion Texas will have to emerge from the Nittany Lions’ quarter of the bracket in order to three-peat. If either Pitt or Louisville win the title, it will be the first for the ACC. That conference will have better odds than ever before, though, given the additions of Stanford, a program that won nine national titles before joining the ACC, and SMU, which gave Pitt the sole blemish on its schedule in October.
The first and second rounds, which will be streamed on ESPN+, are played Thursday through Saturday on campus sites. The regionals are also on campus sites Dec. 12-15. The national semifinals and championship match will be, as we mentioned, played in Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center.
We broke down the schedule for Thursday and Friday’s games, and will update later rounds as they come into focus.
First round
(All times Eastern)
Thursday, Dec. 5
No. 5 BYU vs. Loyola Chicago, 3:30 p.m.
No. 6 Minnesota vs. Western Kentucky, 4:30 p.m.
No. 6 USC vs. UT Arlington, 5 p.m.
No. 7 Florida State vs. Ole Miss, 5:30 p.m.
No. 7 Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee, 5:30 p.m.
No. 5 Dayton vs. South Carolina, 5:30 p.m.
No. 7 Missouri vs. Texas State, 6 p.m.
No. 4 Purdue vs. Western Michigan, 6:30 p.m.
No. 5 Marquette vs. FGCU, 6:30 p.m.
No. 3 Kentucky vs. Cleveland State, 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 Texas vs. A&M-Corpus Christi, 7:30 p.m.
No. 2 SMU vs. Wichita State, 8 p.m.
No. 2 Creighton vs. South Dakota, 8 p.m.
No. 2 Wisconsin vs. Fairfield, 8 p.m.
No. 4 Baylor vs. Wofford, 8 p.m.
No. 4 Utah vs. College of Charleston, 9:30 p.m.
No. 4 Oregon vs. High Point, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 6
No. 8 Oklahoma vs. UTEP, 4 p.m.
No. 8 UNI vs. Illinois, 4 p.m.
No. 6 Florida vs. NC State, 5 p.m.
No. 8 North Carolina vs. Yale, 5 p.m.
No. 8 Miami (FL) vs. South Dakota State, 5:30 p.m.
No. 6 Texas A&M vs. Colorado State, 6:30 p.m.
No. 1 Pittsburgh vs. Morehead State, 7 p.m.
No. 5 TCU vs. Hawaii, 7 p.m.
No. 1 Louisville vs. Chicago State, 7 p.m.
No. 1 Penn State vs. Delaware State, 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 LMU (CA) vs. Washington, 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 Kansas vs. Colgate, 7:30 p.m.
No. 1 Nebraska vs. Florida A&M, 8 p.m.
No. 3 Arizona State vs. New Hampshire, 8:30 p.m.
No. 2 Stanford vs. Sacramento State, 10 p.m.
Second Round
Saturday, Dec. 6-Sunday, Dec. 7
Regionals
Thursday, Dec. 12-Sunday, Dec. 15
Semifinals
Thursday, Dec. 19
Championship
Sunday, Dec. 22
