NCAA volleyball first-round: ESPN+ with no early matches, plenty of overlap

One can only wonder why the NCAA is not starting the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament until mid-afternoon Thursday, foresaking the late morning and/or early afternoon as it conducts 16 matches.

That being said, it will take multiple devices to watch — all on ESPN+ — if you want to see most of them, because there will be plenty of overlap. 

First serve is at 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central as Western Michigan plays Auburn. A half hour later, South Alabama plays Georgia Tech, Baylor plays James Madison and Eastern Illinois plays Marquette.

We’ll take a look at all 16 first-round matches Thursday and then the remaining 16 on Friday. The Thursday winners play Friday, meaning there are 24 matches…