Western Kentucky drew a fan-friendly location for its NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament first-round matchup Thursday against Minnesota.

The opponent? Not so favorable for the Hilltoppers.

WKU enters Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. CT matchup at the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum in Lexington facing a rugged Minnesota squad which earned a No. 6 seed in the tournament.

It’s a tough draw for the Hilltoppers, who swept through Conference USA as the regular season and tournament champions with a spotless record against CUSA rivals.

“We’re excited to be part of the NCAA Tournament, excited to be going back to Lexington in terms of the travel to allow our fanbase to be a part of this,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “Kentucky always does a really good job hosting the event there, so we’re excited to be a part of that.

“Really tough first-round draw for us — that’s pretty rough when you’re the (30th) team in the country and you draw the 15th team in the country in the first round. So that’s disappointing, but everybody can play when you get to this time of year. So big, big challenge ahead of us but our kids are excited to play.”

Hudson said the seeding format for the NCAA Tournament creates a handful of tough first-round matchups every year. Only 32 teams are seeded in the tournament, with the other 32 assigned with geography in mind.

“We should be well beyond that at this point in the development of our sport to where you have true integrity of the bracket,” Hudson said. “They do it to save money on travel costs, but again last time I checked there’s quite a bit of money in the NCAA. I think we can afford a couple extra flights. And so until we get true integrity in our bracket from 1 to 64, things like this are going to happen in terms of draws. Some years you’re a beneficiary of it, and some years you’re not.”

WKU (28-6) secured an automatic bid for the 64-team NCAA Tournament field by claiming a 3-1 win against New Mexico State in the CUSA Tournament championship Nov. 24 in El Paso, Texas.

The Hilltoppers, winners of 24 straight matches, earned the program’s 17th NCAA Tournament berth, including its sixth straight and 10th in the last 11 seasons. The Hilltoppers have won 19 of a possible 22 CUSA championships (11 regular season, nine tournament).

WKU is No. 30 in the latest AVCA volleyball rankings, with Minnesota at No. 15. That means it isn’t a great draw for the Gophers, either.

“It kind of depends on what lens you’re at it looking through,” Minnesota coach Keegan Cook said. “I love it for our team, first and foremost, where we’re going, the quality of opponent we get to play. Some new opponents also, which is always nice for these guys. I like to take them into great venues. I think Lexington is a great venue to play some volleyball matches, so I’m excited about that. On the whole, I think the committee did a great job and I’m probably their toughest critic most times.”

Minnesota (20-10) closed the regular season with three straight wins — the Big Ten does not hold a postseason tournament. Senior opposite Lydia Grote, junior outside hitter Julia Hanson and senior setter Melani Shaffmaster all earned first team All-Big Ten honors, while middle blocker Phoebe Awoleye was a second-team pick.

“Minnesota’s a really, really dangerous team,” Hudson said. “When you look at them, they’re really big and physical. They have wins over Texas and Wisconsin, teams that have been in the Final Four the last few years and could be there again this year.  So you know they’re physical enough to play with those teams. It’ll be a huge challenge for us. We will have to play exceptionally clean volleyball and we will have to try to do some things to negate the physicality. We’re an awfully physical team to be a mid-major, but there’s another level of physicality in this sport and Minnesota possesses that.”

Led by senior Kaylee Cox, CUSA’s Alyssa Cavanaugh Player of the Year, the Hilltoppers counter with a varied attack on offense that Hudson thinks is one of the most balanced teams he’s had in during his long tenure at WKU. Senior Callie Bauer was named CUSA’ Setter of the Year, senior opposite Kenadee Coyle and sophomore middle blocker Izzy Van De Wiele were first-team All-CUSA picks, freshman outside Alivia Skidmore was a second-team selection and both Skidmore and Faith Young landed on the All-Freshman Team.

“They have some cracks in the foundation a little bit ballhandling-wise,” Hudson said. “They don’t serve-receive great always — when they do, you’re losing that day. But that’s where you’ve got to get to them a little bit is that they can be a little bit up-and-down in serve-receive, although they’re improving there. We have to put great pressure on them, but that’s kind of NCAA Tournament volleyball. It’s about applying pressure and see if you can get teams kind of out of sync in terms of what they do in a small window of time.”

Should WKU beat Minnesota, the Tops would face the winner of host Kentucky — a No. 3 seed in the tournament — and Cleveland State on Friday at 6 p.m. in Lexington.