WKU Volleyball: Toppers #15 Overall Seed. Will host Regional.
After a historic season in which WKU Volleyball finished a record 31–1 overall with both the Conference USA regular-season and tournament…
After a historic season in which WKU Volleyball finished a record 31–1 overall with both the Conference USA regular-season and tournament titles, the Hilltoppers were chosen for the NCAA tournament.
As you can see they were rewarded with the 15th overall seed. That allows them to host a regional next Thursday and Friday. Here is the draw for the WKU regional:
As you can see they’re grouped with two more mid-major programs in Kennesaw State (22–8) and Samford (24–5) as well as In-state rival Louisville (19–9). The Cardinals are the only team to defeat the Hilltoppers this season as they beat WKU 3–1 on September 6th at the KFC Yum Center. WKU also faced Samford at the Western Kentucky Invitational and got swept 3–0 on September 21st.
WKU will start the tournament off on Thursday against the Owls who won the Atlantic Sun Tournament over FGCU. The lost to the aforementioned Samford team listed above (3–2). WKU should be able to handle the Owls to set up a rematch in the second round looking for the program’s first sweet sixteen appearance in school history.
Louisville will be formidable, the Cardinals went 12–6 in the tough ACC. The familiarity between both teams and the game in Diddle should help WKU be more competitive than earlier this season when WKU was playing only its fifth game of the season.
Should they advance here’s what the rest of the regional looks like:
Having to potentially play the #2 overall seed Texas (one of only 10 programs to ever will a national title in volleyball) will be tough should they advance but we’d be playing with house money at that point.
Kudos to Travis Hudson, let’s hope the magical season continues with a special regional in a packed Diddle Arena. Look for the tournament games to be on some sort of ESPN platform (Probably ESPN3 at least).
Stay tuned for more coverage as we’ll cover WKU’s tournament ride all the way through.
Here’s the complete 64 team bracket.