Four of the nation’s top collegiate volleyball teams will open the 2024 women’s season at the AVCA First Serve Showcase on Aug. 27. The event features Kentucky, Louisville, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and starts at 7 p.m. (ET) at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center.
“The AVCA is very excited to bring together four teams of this caliber to get the new season started,” says AVCA CEO Dr. Jaime Gordon. “AVCA First Serve offers another way to showcase the sport and continue the momentum from the record-setting 2023 season.”
The first match of the night will feature Nebraska and Kentucky. The Huskers were the 2023 NCAA runner-up and they return four AVCA All-Americans, while the Wildcats, who won the national title in the spring of 2021, are led by three-time All-American setter Emma Grome.
Wisconsin then plays Louisville, in a battle of teams that have both made the NCAA semifinals two times in the last three years. The Badgers were national champions in the fall of 2021, and the Cardinals finished second in 2022. Each team returns three AVCA-All Americans from 2023.
With AVCA First Serve taking place in Louisville on Aug. 27, it means the 2024 season will both begin and end at the KFC Yum! Center, which is also the site of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship Dec. 19 and 22. AVCA First Serve matches will be broadcast on ESPN2.
“Louisville is the place to be for women’s college volleyball this year!” says University of Louisville women’s head volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly. “We are looking forward to the new season, and this marquee event will be a great way to start it off.”
AVCA First Serve marks the dawn of a new era for the association’s preseason event. The AVCA sponsored similar early season events from 1995 to 2011 and in 2014 and is able to restart this tradition based on its existing exemption through the NCAA for such competitions.
Tickets for AVCA First Serve will go on sale Friday, June 14 at 10 am at the KFC Yum! Center box office and ticketmaster.com. There will be a presale period from June 10-13.
For more information on the AVCA First Serve Showcase, click here.
To help with planning their trip to Louisville for the matches, fans can download a copy of Louisville Tourism’s annual Visitor Guide to see the city’s top attractions and bourbon distilleries. Visitors can find additional city attractions, lodging, and dining assistance at gotolouisville.com.
