The No. 19 Western Kentucky volleyball team knew its next stop would be Omaha, Neb., for the NCAA Tournament, but that didn’t make the wait to see the bracket any easier.

Over an hour after the tournament’s selection show was scheduled to begin, WKU learned it would face Jackson State in the first round on April 14 at 9:30 p.m.

“Man, they kept us in suspense for a while,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “Glad we were an automatic selection to the tournament because we were in that last bracket that comes up and that’s always nerve-racking. I think I paced a mile out there just waiting for our name to come up.

“Just excited to be a part of the NCAA Tournament in any given year. I know that certainly here in the last decade our fans have come to think that it’s just what we do, but I can assure you it’s incredibly special to do on any given year and certainly in this COVID year.”

WKU enters the tournament with an unbeaten 21-0 mark – the first time in program history it’s gone undefeated through the regular season and conference tournament – after knocking off Rice 3-1 in the Conference USA Tournament championship match Saturday to earn the automatic berth. It was the program’s sixth C-USA Tournament title in seven seasons since joining the league.

The Lady Toppers will be making its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance and second straight, after claiming the C-USA Tournament title in 2019 as well.

“The wait is always nerve-racking just to see who you’re going to match up against and play. Obviously we’re really excited just to be in this tournament and be playing such amazing teams,” WKU senior Kayland Jackson said. “It was really fun just to see what bracket we were going to be in and we’re excited to play Jackson State.”

Jackson State enters as unbeaten champions from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Lady Tigers are 11-0, after having the SWAC championship match canceled due to COVID-19 related issues and subsequent quarantining of student-athletes among the Arkansas-Pine Bluff program. Jackson State beat UAPB in the regular season 3-1.

The WKU and Jackson State programs have never played each other.

“We don’t know anything at this point other than they’re an undefeated conference champion,” Hudson said. “ In an NCAA Tournament, everyone can play and when you get that field paired down to 48, you know that you’re really dealing with teams that can play, so now the work begins to prepare for them and hopefully find a way to advance.”

The tournament was limited to 48 teams, with 30 conference champion automatic qualifiers and 18 at-large selections. The top 16 overall seeds received a first-round bye. Wisconsin was the top overall seed. The tournament will be played April 14-24 and will be held entirely in Omaha, instead of at regional sites as it has in the past.

WKU is 4-12 all-time in NCAA Tournament matches, but has won first-round matches in each of its last two trips to the tournament, and has advanced to the second round in four of its last six trips.

The Lady Toppers entered as the No. 15 national seed last season and hosted matches at E.A. Diddle Arena. WKU swept Kennesaw State in the opener before falling to Louisville in five sets. In 2017, WKU beat Notre Dame 3-0 in Lexington before falling to Kentucky in five sets. WKU has never made it past the second round.

With a win over Jackson State, WKU would face No. 15 overall seed Washington State (11-4) in the second round the following day. A win there could set up a potential meeting with Kentucky in the Sweet 16, which enters as the No. 2 overall seed. Kentucky will play the winner of the first-round match between Illinois State and UNLV in its first match.

“There weren’t seeds attached to all of it, but they were able to really organize that bracket this year and we’re in the same bracket as the 15 seed, which means they probably viewed us as about an 18 seed or just outside the seed line,” Hudson said. “There was a lot of time and effort put in by that committee to come up with those selections and I’m certain it was difficult.

“Do I believe we did the work to be a seeded team? Of course I do. What I do know is that team we had that was seeded two years ago in Diddle Arena, it was and will always be a really special team, but I do believe this team we have right now is playing at a higher level.”{&end}