Cara Cresse thriving in her fifth year for UofL Volleyball

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville volleyball's best teams have always had a steadying veteran presence. Fifth-year senior middle blocker Cara Cresse is providing that for this year's group.

It has been pretty steady climb for Cresse from redshirting as a Freshman behind some All-American middle blockers to now being an All-American herself and a veteran leader for 5th-ranked Louisville.

"It's kinda crazy," said Cresse. "Sometimes I forget that I'm the oldest one here and it's cool. One of the reasons I redshirted was because Amaya Tillman and Anna Stevenson were both starting middles here my Freshman year and to be able to learn from them was amazing."

Cresse said, "I remember experiencing that my Freshman year and having some really great role models and immediately I wanted to do that for the younger girls. It's pretty crazy to think that I'm at that point, and I have the younger girls looking up to me. It's very much an honor and I hope that I can really lead well."

"She's just such a calm presence at the net and the jump from high school to college, the game seemed really fast," said head coach Dan Meske. "For Cara, her first few years you could see that the game felt fast. She was making extra movements. She was reacting to things that weren't really happening. And now, she makes it look like it's in slow motion for her. She feels like we have a pro playing amongst college players. She very well could be a pro. She probably would have been a first round draft pick last year. She chose to come back for her fifth year, and I think it shows in just her presence."

Cresse is glad she decided to come back for another year. She said it's been a pretty seamless transition with Meske going from assistant coach to head coach this year and that UofL's challenging non-conference schedule will pay dividends down the road.

"We're a very young team," said the Fort Wayne, Indiana native. "We have a lot of new girls stepping into big roles from last year. I've just seen everyone step up in really big ways. We have a very competitive group and I think that stems from fighting for positions this year and I think that will get us really, really far."

The Cardinals are 12-2, coming off their biggest win of the season, a four-set triumph over then 3rd-ranked Stanford. They host Virginia Tech Friday, then Virginia Sunday, both at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. Then the following week, they host 10th-ranked SMU and number four Pitt.

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