LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – If you want to talk about rugged schedules, the University of Louisville volleyball team is right at home in that conversation. The Cardinals, ranked No. 3 in the nation, have played seven of the other teams ranked among the nation’s top dozen.
On Wednesday night, the Cardinals faced No. 1 Pittsburgh in their final regular-season game in the KFC Yum! Center. The game represented a significant opportunity for Louisville to gauge its improvement since a five-set loss at Pittsburgh at the end of October. Since then, the Cardinals won at SMU, currently No. 10, and ran off eight straight wins after that while dropping only one set.
But Pittsburgh (28-1) was a different story. With a handful of National Player of the Year candidates, the Panthers claimed the first set and though Louisville fought back to finish the second, couldn’t threaten Pitt in the third and fourth as the visitors won the game and a share of the ACC championship 3-1 in front of a crowd of 12,510.
The league challenges aren’t over for Louisville. The Cardinals will fly to California for their season finale at No. 7-ranked Stanford on Saturday at 4.
“I think it was a solid effort,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “We didn't capitalize on a few things we should have. And, you know, I thought we started out each game except for Set 2 pretty slow. And when you do that against great team, it's almost impossible. You have to get lucky to catch up. But we have a lot of volleyball left to play and we're not going to hang our heads about this. Of course, we wanted to win this, could have clinched a share of the title, so, big game. But I think we'll be back, and we'll be fine going into the tournament.”
The tournament, of course, has been in the window all season. Not just because of the chance to play early round games at home, but because the Final Four will be played in the KFC Yum! Center. Louisville has made that round in two of the past three seasons, and went to the NCAA Championship game two years ago.
Getting back to that stage has been a major goal of this team. And Busboom Kelly says the team has made significant progress since losing to Nebraska, now No. 2 in the nation, here in September.
Louisville’s record is at 25-4, and all four of those losses are to teams in the current top four nationally – two to Pitt, one to Nebraska an one at No. 4 Penn State. Louisville has beaten No. 5 Creighton, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 SMU and No. 12 Kentucky.
“I feel like tonight we battled,” Busboom Kelly said. “We made some really silly errors. It felt like we were in it, and we're just more confident in who we are. In that Nebraska match, we just got rolled. And I don't think we really knew who we were at that point. So, it was a little concerning or scary, if you want, for lack of a better word, after that game. . . . But I think we have a lot of confidence going into Saturday and NCAA Tournament.”
Outside hitter Anna DeBeer led the Cardinals offense with 14 kills, nine digs, three aces, and a solo block to hit .229 on the night. Middle blocker Reese Robins hit a .533 clip with 10 kills and two blocks. Middle blockers Cara Cresse and Phekran Kong each posted four blocks, with Cresse adding nine kills and Kong tallying seven. Libero Elena Scott served two aces and outside hitter Charitie Luper added one of her own.
Olivia Babcock led Pitt with 23 kills, two aces, and five blocks. Torrey Stafford knocked down 17 kills of her own with 13 digs. Pitt recorded 58 kills and 10 total blocks to hit .310 on the night.
“My takeaways from tonight’s match would just probably be that there are so many good teams in the collegiate volleyball world right now, and to be one of them, you just have to be good consistently,” Kong said. “Not even just good, you have to be great, especially because the team we played today, the team we're going to play on Saturday, and a lot of other people have so much potential to be playing here in that championship game at the end of December. And I just feel maybe we just lost focus a little bit. I mean, we got a 10-1 run against us, which is really hard. Because we do a lot of good things during practice, like everybody's super emotionally invested, but it's really hard to get yourself out of ruts. So we just need to try to better the ball next time around, knowing that we don't have to hang our heads on this, because we do have another opportunity to play in just a couple of days.”
And if Louisville can keep winning, it can likely count on chances to run up against Pitt, or Nebraska, yet again.
Busboom Kelly said those teams have separated themselves, “maybe a little bit, just by their record and who they've beaten. I mean, Nebraska has had an incredible season. I think they have the most Top 5 wins or Top 10 wins in the country. And Pitt is certainly one of the most, if not the most, physical team in the country. But that doesn't mean they don't have weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses. But I think at this point, you can't say they haven't separated themselves. They're both playing really well, and they've proven it against great opponents.”
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