IRVING, Texas – After securing the top record in the league standings and a fourth consecutive American Athletic Conference title, UCF officially entered the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship on Sunday night. The Knights claimed one of the 32 automatic bids available into the NCAA Championship as a conference tournament or regular-season champion during the NCAA Volleyball Championship Selection Show on ESPNU.
 
UCF (26-6) will take on Pepperdine (22-5) on Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. (ET) in NCAA first-round action at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. The winner of the match will face either national No. 13 seed UCLA (23-5) or Fairfield (24-8) in the second round of the tournament on Dec. 4 at 10 p.m. (ET).
 
UCF earned its 12th all-time NCAA tournament berth after finishing atop The American regular-season standings for the third time in four seasons, winning 15 straight league matches to post a 19-1 conference record. In lieu of a championship tournament being held in 2021 the Knights’ run through the league schedule earned the program the automatic NCAA bid from The American for the fourth straight season. UCF was previously the conference tournament champion in 2019 and 2020 and added another regular-season title pre-conference tournament in 2018. UCF has previously advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship on three occasions, 1997, 2003 and 2019.
 
Cincinnati was the first American program since the conference was reconstituted in 2013 to reach the final 16 teams of the NCAA tournament, downing VCU in four sets and No. 6 Pittsburgh in five sets before eventually losing in five sets to No. 11 Penn State in 2019. UCF’s five total NCAA appearances as an American conference member (2014, 2018-21) are just ahead of Cincinnati’s three (2016, 2018-19) bids as the most tournament berths in the current conference configuration.
 
American Athletic Conference Women’s Volleyball
2021 NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship
 
NCAA First Round – Friday, Dec. 3
Pepperdine vs. UCF – Los Angeles, Calif. (7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT)
 
NCAA Second Round – Saturday, Dec. 4
UCF/Pepperdine vs. Fairfield/No. 13 UCLA – Los Angeles, Calif. (10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT)