The path to repeating as national champions has been set, folks.

Penn State women’s volleyball earned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will take on USF on Friday, December 5 in the opening round. The match will be held in Austin, Texas.

The Nittany Lions have extended their streak of consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament to 45, dating back to its inception in 1981. They are the only school in NCAA history to play in every single NCAA Tournament.

If the Nittany Lions win on Friday, they’ll take on the winner of No. 1 seed Texas and Florida A&M in the second round.

USF went 17-12 this year with a 12-4 record in the American Athletic Conference. This year marks the Bulls’ first tournament apperance since 2002.

It was a turbulent regular season for the defending national champions this year. After starting the season as the No. 2 team in the country, Penn State finished the season with a record of 18-12 and 12-8 in Big Ten play, finishing No. 25 in the last edition of the AVCA poll before Selection Sunday. It was the most regular season losses under the leadership of head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley.

Despite an up-and-down regular season, Penn State will enter the tournament as the reigning champions after it won last year’s tournament. It is 36-9 in all-time NCAA Tournament first-round matches. It will look to become the first team to repeat as national champions since Texas did it in 2021-22.

All matches of the NCAA tournament will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.