LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The NCAA volleyball season kicked off on the heels of a hit from Eric Clapton.

About 40 seconds after midnight, sixth-seeded Louisville finished off No. 3 Wisconsin in four sets in an AVCA First Serve Showcase match that began Tuesday and ended Wednesday in the Eastern Time Zone. That was after second-seeded Nebraska defeated No. 9 Kentucky, also in four sets.

It was a great kickoff to the 2024 NCAA women’s volleyball season on ESPN2, and there’s so much more to come this week, including Friday’s 218-game slate, when the rest of the field gets underway.

Nebraska Overpowers Kentucky

Kentucky of the SEC made it two sets until Nebraska of the Big Ten stepped on the gas pedal and won 25-21, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20.

The key was blocking: Nebraska had 18 blocks, its most since 2018. The Huskers got 11 kills apiece from Merritt Beason and Rebekah Allick, who made one error in 15 attacks to hit .667 and had two solo blocks and 10 block assists. Beason hit just .114 but had six block assists and eight digs.

While Nebraska hit .258 with four aces (three by Lindsay Krause and eight service errors), Kentucky hit .139 with six aces and 16 errors.

Nebraska finally took the field after a (literally) well-documented offseason where the attention wasn’t always positive, as the Huskers lost the NCAA championship game to Texas.

“It’s one of the reasons we were a little shaky to start the night is because we’ve had a lot of distractions,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “There’s been a lot of stories and documentaries and all that stuff takes away from us and it was really cool to be in our locker room and not have — well, the ESPN guys were there — but all of a sudden we were able to focus on ourselves tonight and that’s one of the reasons it was such a rewarding win for us.”

“We were so excited to play someone else,” Beason said. “This team is so deep and it’s so competitive day in and day out that sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we’re essentially playing a national championship game every day in practice, it’s such a high level. There’s been a lot of attention, but we’ve tried to block that out for the most part and do what we can to stay in the moment and focus on what we need to do.”

Click here for the Nebraska report and here for the Kentucky report.

Louisville races past Wisconsin

Louisville scored the final four points of the 18-25, 25-17, 26-24, 25-20 victory and won despite a .166 batting average.

Arizona transfers Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Charitie Luper led Louisville with 11 kills each.

Anna DeBeer had 10 kills, but with 11 errors she hit .026. She had 16 digs, topped only by libero Elena Scott with 22. Cara Cresse had eight kills, hit .400 and six block assists.

Wisconsin, which hit .179, got 17 kills from last year’s Big Ten MVP Sarah Franklin. Anna Smrek had 12 kills and Devyn Robinson had eight, hitting .353, and tied her career high with 10 blocks, four of them solo.

Because the game started — and ended — so late, the originally announced crowd of 9,280 at the Yum! Center had dwindled to less than 2,000 by the end of the evening.

Click here for the Wisconsin report and here for the Louisville report.

State Farm joins the volleyball wave

State Farm has become the title sponsor of what is now the State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase, featuring four major NCAA women’s matches on Sunday and Monday in Milwaukee.

The first event will take place at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will feature the two-time reigning national champions and AVCA coaches judging preseason No. 1 Texas, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 5 Stanford and No. 18 Minnesota.

On Sunday, Wisconsin plays Texas at 11:30 a.m. Central on FOX, followed by Minnesota vs. Stanford at 2 p.m. on FS1. On Monday, Wisconsin plays Stanford at 4 p.m. on FOX, while Minnesota takes on Texas at 6:30 p.m. on FS1.