Press Release from the University of Louisville athletic department:
The University of Louisville volleyball team was named the No. 11 seed as the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee announced the 48-team field that will compete in the 2020 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship.
The 2020 Women's Volleyball Championship bracket 🏐
➡️ https://t.co/sgIvk710cq
#NCAAVB pic.twitter.com/MlnfEoypsT— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) April 4, 2021
ACC Champion Louisville earned the league’s NCAA automatic qualification and will receive a first-round bye as the No. 11 seed. The ACC title is the third in the last six seasons for the Cardinals (14-2, 12-2), and their second outright. Louisville shared the championship with Pitt in 2017 after winning it outright in 2015. The Cardinals are making their 29th NCAA Tournament appearance.
“We were expecting to be good this year,” said Dani Busboom Kelly, UofL head coach. “But to have a nine-month season is crazy. To be great for nine months is a challenge. We knew one slip up or one bad day could cost us a championship. When we won it outright on Friday, it was a pretty good feeling. It definitely made the selection show a lot more fun.”
UofL looks to build off the momentum of their last tournament appearance – an Elite Eight run – the best in program history when the Cardinals knocked off No. 2 seed Texas to advance to the regional final in 2019.
Thirty conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 18 positions were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.
The University of Wisconsin earned the top seed and will compete in the NCAA postseason for the 24th time and the eighth consecutive season. The Badgers were the 2019 national runners-up. The University of Kentucky is the second seed, followed by No. 3 University of Minnesota and the University of Texas earned the fourth seed.
The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and received a first-round bye for this year’s 48-team bracket. Teams from the same conference were not paired during first- and second-round competition.
The Cardinals are part of a four-team contingent from Atlantic Coast Conference joining Georgia Tech, Pitt, and Notre Dame.
The 48 teams participating in the championship will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, where all rounds of the tournament will be played April 14-24 at the CHI Health Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena, hosted by the University of Nebraska and MECA. First- and second-round matches will be played April 14 and 15, and regional semifinals will be played April 18, at the convention center. Regional finals will take place on April 19 at the arena.
The regional winners will advance to the national semifinals and championship final hosted on April 22 and 24 at the CHI Health Center Omaha arena. The national semifinal matches and championship match will broadcast on ESPN2. All matches will be streamed on various ESPN networks.
All first- and second-round match times can be found on the attached championship bracket or online at www.ncaa.com/volleyball
Tickets for the first and second rounds are limited to player pass list only. There will be tickets available to purchase should the Cardinals advance to the Regional.
Second Round
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The Cardinals are going dancing in Omaha as NCAA Volleyball heads to bubble! 💃🏐💃https://t.co/B4yV66mXas
— Louisville Volleyball (@UofLVolleyball) April 5, 2021
The moment our name was called!! #GoCards x #NCAAVB pic.twitter.com/DlnKQbvSmK
— Louisville Volleyball (@UofLVolleyball) April 4, 2021
NO. 1️⃣1️⃣ NATIONAL SEED
🐦 @UofLVolleyball
#NCAAVB pic.twitter.com/tQwqZmrp46— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) April 4, 2021
