diff --git a/hack/lib/version.sh b/hack/lib/version.sh
index 0a3342378c4..4dec8dadb4f 100644
--- a/hack/lib/version.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/version.sh
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ kube::version::get_version_vars() {
     fi
 
     # Use git describe to find the version based on tags.
-    if [[ -n ${KUBE_GIT_VERSION-} ]] || KUBE_GIT_VERSION=$("${git[@]}" describe --tags --abbrev=14 "${KUBE_GIT_COMMIT}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null); then
+    if [[ -n ${KUBE_GIT_VERSION-} ]] || KUBE_GIT_VERSION=$("${git[@]}" describe --tags --match='v*' --abbrev=14 "${KUBE_GIT_COMMIT}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null); then
       # This translates the "git describe" to an actual semver.org
       # compatible semantic version that looks something like this:
       #   v1.1.0-alpha.0.6+84c76d1142ea4d