Only 32 NCAA volleyball teams are still in contention for the 2021 NCAA Tournament title, and three of them are from Kentucky.
No. 1-seeded Louisville, No. 7 Kentucky and Western Kentucky each won their first matchup of the 64-team tournament to advance, with second round games scheduled for Saturday.
The commonwealth is a strong volleyball state, with UK as the defending NCAA champions and U of L as the current top team in the nation. In last season’s NCAA Tournament, which took place in spring 2021 due to the pandemic, the state of Kentucky was the only with three schools (UK, U of L and WKU) to advance to the round of 16.