CRAWFORD | Hot-hitting Louisville consumes Purdue in Sweet 16 sweep

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – When Louisville volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly took down a banner that had been hanging in her team’s locker room all season, a tangible reminder of every goal that had been staring players in the face since the start, she thought the symbolism of burning it might lift some of the pressure of her team’s shoulders, and free them up to just play volleyball in the NCAA Regional round.

I’m not sure she counted on this.

Louisville consumed Purdue in a late-night firestorm of precision play, sweeping to victory in an NCAA Sweet Sixteen matchup Thursday in Freedom Hall. The Cardinals’ hitting percentage of .467 was by far their best of the season in a 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 victory before a caffeinated crowd of 4,706.

“I just think they’re on fire,” said Purdue coach Dave Shondell. Yeah, he said the words.

In its last game, against Northern Iowa, Louisville had fought back from match points three times. It faced its own tournament mortality, then fought back from the brink. It’s as if the Cardinals wanted to make their new life their best life.

“I was hoping we’d see the team we saw last week, but it wasn’t,” Shondell said. “It was just an unbelievable performance. They played with great intensity and great purpose. They served the ball tough and passed well and had live arms. We weren’t sharp. We weren’t the team that I think we’ve been the last several weeks, but a lot of that is because of the way Louisville put the pressure on us. Hats off to Louisville. Our team had a great season. These moments are not fun for anybody when your goals are very high. Not only do you lose, you get your bell rung. . . . We were a good defensive team this year, but we couldn’t slow them down. I think the message was sent to them when they played that very close match against Northern Iowa that they better wake up, and they did.”

It was this sharp a night for Louisville – the Cardinals did not allow a service ace. Every serve went back to the other side or was out of bounds. The Cardinals had 52 kills, led by 15 from Anna DeBeer and 23 from Charitie Luper, who hit .571 in the match and added nine digs.

Louisville had 33 digs, led by Luper with nine and Elena Scott with eight. It had three service aces, all provided by freshman setter Nayelis Cabello, who also had 23 assists. Elle Glock added 22 assists.

“It was a great effort by us. We are pretty excited with the way we came out tonight and just stayed super consistent the whole match,” a smiling Busboom Kelly said afterward. “Purdue is a great team. They are always fighters. I mean, they hit [.273], which is excellent. They did a lot of great things well, but I'm just really proud that we finally feel like we learned from the last three matches we've had. So, it's like we came out and just had a different attitude and mindset."

Luper and DeBeer said that being pushed to the edge of elimination had something to do with that.

“For me personally, it came from just having that feeling that our season could have ended our last game,” Luper said. “And I kind of took that into the game today, and I just remembered that feeling, and I just kept constantly telling myself, I don't want to feel that again. So, every single time I had a chance to kill the ball, you know, just to put it away. I made sure that did.”

“I agree,” DeBeer added. “You never really know when your last game is going to be, especially for us seniors. So, I think our mindset was just coming in and giving it our all. We really learned a lot from our last game, and how that feels. And coming in and being the attacker today, really just going after it, just shows where our team is at right now in our mindset.”

The victory earns Louisville a a fourth consecutive trip to the Elite Eight and a third shot at Stanford this season. The Cardinal advanced in a four-set victory over Florida that stretched them – and stretched Louisville’s start time to around 10 p.m. Eastern. The teams have split a pair of meetings. They know each other well. But Louisville now takes a bit of confidence that it may have saved its best for last – which is exactly the goal of any season.

“I told the girls after the game, I think this is the best we’ve ever played all season,” Luper said. “I really think it was. It just felt like everyone was playing so free. We were just having so much fun. And like I said, even if we were to make a mistake, you know, no one would be down on themselves, our heads were higher in this game. It just felt like things were just clicking along with the cylinders today.”

It's a feeling the team would like to ride straight back downtown, into the program’s third Final Four in four years.

“Something we talked about was that we've done all the work up to this point, so we just wanted to come out there and just do it,” DeBeer said. “And there's nothing else you can do. I mean, everyone's been putting in the work all year, so I think that is the game changer today, is we were just having fun and going after it.”

As Louisville celebrated on the court and placed its name on the bracket below Stanford’s and into the Elite Eight, the clock ticked well out of prime time – but Louisville proved that after a long season, it is more than ready for another prime time test on Saturday night.

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