Rust? What rust? Kentucky volleyball rolls in NCAA Tournament opener.

It had been three long weeks since its last match, so when the Kentucky volleyball team took the court for its NCAA Tournament opener Thursday night in Omaha, the Cats weren’t sure what to expect.

“That’s something we talked about beforehand,” UK Coach Craig Skinner said. “The adrenaline is going to be pumping and we might hit the first ball and it might hit the College World Series baseball stadium. But if it does, we move on and get ready for the next one.”

No need to worry. No sign of rust. The tournament’s No. 2 overall seed rolled to a straight-set win over previously undefeated UNLV 25-16, 25-19 and 25-18 at the CHI Health Convention Center to advance to Sunday’s regional semifinal against Western Kentucky, which defeated No. 15 seed Washington State in five sets. Sunday’s match is set for 10 p.m. EDT on ESPN2.

Madi Skinner led the way with 11 kills in the Kentucky win, while sister Avery Skinner and teammate Ali Stumler added 10 for the Wildcats, who improved to 20-1 on the season. SEC Player of the Year Madison Lilley contributed 43 assists as the Wildcats ended up with a 46.2 kill percentage compared to UNLV’s 24.3.

What was it like to finally get back on the court for a match?

“Finally is the key word there,” Lilley said. “It seems like it has been forever. In a weird way, it seems like it’s been forever but we’ve been training for this since August so it’s been a long time coming. We were just excited to be here, excited to get the ball rolling.”

“My adrenaline was through the roof,” Madi Skinner said.

It showed. The Cats jumped out to a 7-3 lead in taking the first set. They fell behind 5-3 early in the second only to rebound and take control later with four straight points to go up 21-15. The SEC champs led by as many as nine (19-10) in the third set before closing out the match.

UNLV star Mariena Hayden had 19 of her team’s 30 kills — “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that,” Skinner said — but the winning coach was happy with the way his team defended the rest of the Rebels.

“I was pleased with the way we played,” he said.

That was especially true considering no one quite knew what to expect from the setup. With the 48-team tournament being played in a quasi-bubble in Omaha, only 86 fans were allowed to attend the match per team — UK estimated it had about 50 family and friends in attendance — and the courts are in a large, open convention hall.

“It’s definitely different,” said the coach. “There’s a lot of space behind you and on the other side of the net. I think that’s one advantage UNLV already had on us. They had already played a match yesterday (beating Illinois State). So us getting our first match in and getting a feeling for what the vision and depth perception is was important.”

“I think it was nice that this is my first time so I have nothing to compare it to,” said Madi Skinner, a freshman. “For a lot of the girls it’s ‘this is extremely different from what we know in the past.’ This is my first go. It has been great and it has been nice to come in and even though these are different circumstances, I don’t know any different.”

The Cats now have two more off days before Sunday’s Sweet 16 matchup. What will the coach and his team do between now and then?

“There’s a zoo, we might try and visit that,” Craig Skinner said. “I might try to look around the hotel and see if there’s a pinball machine or something that can occupy their time. Our players are in classes, a couple of them had exams today. They’re busy with school, so they definitely need some time to do that. But we’ll find some things for us to do.”

How WKU advanced

Western Kentucky (23-0) took a two-set lead against No. 15 seed Washington State (11-5) then held on for a 3-2 victory in Omaha on Thursday night to set up Sunday’s showdown with UK.

The Hilltoppers, taken to five sets for the first time this season, won by scores of 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-17 and 15-10 to reach the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time ever.

“I’m almost at a loss for words, I’m just so crazy proud of these kids,” WKU head coach Travis Hudson said. “That was one roller coaster of a match. To be in control and up 14-8 in the third set and for Washington State to come roaring back and to have to just find a way in that fifth set. I was much more concerned about mentality in that fifth set than I was about actual volleyball, and we were able to come out and find our aggressiveness and we had just enough to win this thing.”

The Hilltoppers scored the final five points of the match to break a 10-10 fifth-set tie. Lauren Matthews provided three of those kills.

“I don’t even know how to feel,” Matthews said. “When the ball dropped I was kind of in shock, like: ‘We just did that.’ I don’t know how to feel right now, yeah, that’s where I’m at.”

Louisville in, Morehead out

Louisville will give the commonwealth a third team in the NCAA Sweet 16 after its 3-1 win over San Diego on Thursday.

The Cardinals (15-2) got off to a sluggish start, dropping the first set 25-14, then hit the gas to sweep the next three by scores of 25-23, 25-17 and 29-27.

Claire Chaussee came off the bench to lead Louisville with a career-high 21 kills.

“One of the things you will hear about our team is our depth and we had to use that today,” U of L Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said.

Louisville advances to a round-of-16 match Sunday at 3:30 p.m. EDT against No. 6 seed Washington (18-3). The Huskies advanced by beating Dayton, 3-2.

▪ Morehead State’s season came to an end in the round of 32 against No. 8 seed Florida on Thursday. The Eagles (17-2) defeated Creighton on Wednesday for the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win but the Gators (20-3) proved too much to handle. Florida won by scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-19.

Morehead State, which was making its third NCAA tourney appearance, won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships this season.

Next game

No. 2 seed Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky

When: 10 p.m. EDT Sunday

Where: Omaha, Neb.

TV: ESPN2

Records: UK 20-1, WKU 23-0

Series: UK leads 14-4

Last meeting: UK won 3-2 on Dec. 2, 2017, in an NCAA Tournament second-round match in Memorial Coliseum.

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