LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky volleyball teams have both earned top seeds in the NCAA tournament and the added advantage of hosting their first games.

UofL earned a No. 1 seed, and will host Chicago State Friday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cards are making their 33rd NCAA Tournament appearance this year. Should they advance, they will face the winner of the Illinois/Northern Iowa match.

The Cardinals (25-5, 17-3) finished tied at second in the ACC title race.

 “I feel like we’ve done a great job this whole year to get a top 4-seed. That is the goal: to give yourself the best situation possible to have a great run in the tournament, and I really felt like we did that,” said Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. 

UK has earned a No. 3 seed and will host a sub-regional inside Memorial Coliseum in Lexington. Kentucky will play Cleveland State Friday at 7:30 p.m. This is Kentucky’s 20th-straight NCAA appearance under head coach Craig Skinner and the seventh-straight season the team has earned a national seed.

The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball committee announced the 64-team field that will compete in this year’s tournament on Sunday. Thirty-one conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 33 positions were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.

For the third year, the top 32 teams were seeded nationally in pods of four and place with four regions for the tournament, with the tops seeds given the opportunity to host.

Regionals for the NCAA volleyball tournament will be held at four non-predetermines campus sites to be announced on Dec. 8. At each site, four teams will compete in single-elimination regional semifinal competition. The regional winners will advance to the national semifinals and championship final hosted by UofL, in conjunction with the Louisville Sports Commission.