Enjoy the press conference & highlights from yesterday’s historic win over #1 overall seed Pittsburgh. After dropping a close first set, the Cards dominated the next three & forced Pitt into unusually sloppy play, including National Player of the Year Olivia Babcock.
The Cards will go on to face the third overall seed Penn State Sunday at 3. Penn State defeated the Cards away from the Yum earlier in the season. This was the third straight season that the Cardinals and Pitt have met in the NCAA tournament, seeing Pitt take the matchup 3-2 in 2023, and Louisville finishing on top 3-2 in 2022.* Good luck to the Volleyball team Sunday! Go Cards!
Here are some highlights!
Dec. 20, 2024
Contact: Nancy Worley (Nancy@GoCards.com)
Louisville Volleyball Advances to NCAA Finals With 3-1 Over Pittsburgh
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 1-seeded University of Louisville volleyball team advanced to its second-ever NCAA National Championship appearance after besting Atlantic Coast Conference foe and No. 1 overall seed Pittsburgh in four sets
Thursday night in the KFC Yum! Center. UofL secured its bid for the final after winning 21-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-17. The victory marks Louisville’s 30th win of 2024, making it the seventh 30+ win season in school history.
“Incredible match tonight. Pitt’s an exceptional team, and they have players that you can do everything right and they still can take over the game,” said head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. “I was just so proud of the way our team played and
battled and stuck with what we’d worked on this entire week, Just the amount of trust we showed, not only in the team, but in ourselves, was pretty incredible.”
Louisville hit .320 on the match off of 65 kills, 54 digs, 12.0 total blocks, and eight service aces. Three players recorded 14 kills on the night, all outside hitters Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, and Sofia Maldonado Diaz. Each player also
had at least one block, with DeBeer stuffing three and Maldonado Diaz and Luper both posting one.
A couple of freshmen shined for Louisville in the match. Setter and ACC Freshman of the Year Nayelis Cabello recorded 44 assists, eight digs, and two aces; outside hitter Payton Petersen came in to post two kills, four digs, and two aces.
Libero and ACC Defensive Player of the Year Elena Scott tallied 14 digs of the Cards’ 54. Middle blockers Cara Cresse and Phekran Kong both added at least four blocks and seven kills, with Cresse putting up six blocks and nine kills and Kong stuffing four
blocks and adding seven kills.
ACC Player of the Year and AVCA Player of the Year Olivia Babcock led the way for Pitt with a career-high 33 kills on 65 attacks, two blocks, and five digs. Torrey Stafford recorded a double-double, recording 18 kills and 15 digs with a
solo block. The Panthers hit a .316 clip with 70 kills, 64 digs, 4.0 total blocks, and two aces.
“It just felt like everybody was so dialed in, we could have put anybody in and had the same outcome,” said Busboom Kelly. “Super proud and a really unbelievable performance against maybe the best team in the country.”
The 17 points scored by Pitt in the fourth set marks the lowest amount the team has scored in a set all season. The previous low was 18 against Georgia Tech on Nov. 30.
With this win, Louisville advances to the National Championship match on Dec. 22 at 3 p.m. in the Yum! Center to face the winner of Penn State/Nebraska. The championship match can be viewed on ABC. The Cards are in the hunt for their first
NCAA title in program history.
Set 1: Louisville 21, Pittsburgh 25
Louisville got the scoring started, going up 2-0 after an attack error from Pitt and a kill from Luper. The points that followed kept the set tight, with neither team getting a lead bigger than two. Through 26 points, there were nine ties
and six different Cards that recorded kills in Reese Robins, Cresse, Luper, Kong, Maldonado Diaz, and DeBeer. The Panthers took one of their biggest leads at 13-11, but kills from Luper and DeBeer tied it back up at 14-all. Pittsburgh scored the next point
to take the lead 15-14 at the media timeout. Out of the timeout, Pitt took control, pulling ahead 20-16, after only DeBeer and Cresse tallied kills for the Cards. UofL used its first timeout, after which the Panthers got out to a 22-16 lead on a 4-0 run that
saw Louisville take its second timeout. Pitt added one more kill, but Robins ended the 5-0 run on a kill. Set point came for Pittsburgh after a kill, but UofL held off four set points on kills from Robins and Kong, a block from Kong and Maldonado Diaz, and
an ace from Cabello to bring the score to 24-21. At the fifth set point, the Panthers took the win 25-21 on a kill. Pitt posted a .373 hitting percentage on 22 kills with 24 digs; Louisville hit for .298 on 17 kills, 21 digs, and an ace.
Set 2: Louisville 25, Pittsburgh 23
Pitt got out to a quick 4-0 lead off of Babcock’s 10th kill, a service ace, a block, and an error from the Cards. The 4-0 run ended on a service error from the Panthers before Elena Scott served an ace to put the score at 4-2. Pittsburgh
went on a 3-0 run to lead 7-2 into the Louisville timeout. After the timeout, Kong ended the run on a kill as the Cards started climbing back. UofL got the closest they had been all set after a kill from DeBeer made the score 9-6. Pitt added another kill before
a service error and Cresse notched a kill to bring Louisville within two at 10-8. The Panthers killed one more before the Cards went on a 5-0 run to lead 13-11 for the first time in the set. The 5-0 run was highlighted by blocks from the duos of Cresse and
Maldonado Diaz followed by Cresse and Luper. Pitt took its first timeout of the set and came out to end the run and tie the score at 13. Points continued to go back and forth as Babcock led the way for the Panthers and Kong, Maldonado Diaz, and DeBeer racked
up more kills and blocks for the Cards. There were nine more ties throughout the end of the set, before Louisville took its first timeout down 22-21 with Pitt on a 3-0 run. Cresse knocked down a kill to even the score at 22, but the Panthers responded with
a kill. Luper killed two more balls to put UofL at set point and force Pitt’s second timeout. Luper’s eighth kill locked down the set win 25-23 for the Cards. In the second set, Kong hit a perfect 1.000 clip with five kills on five attempts.
Set 3: Louisville 29, Pittsburgh 27
Pittsburgh were awarded the first two points after errors from the Cards, until Maldonado Diaz got Louisville on the board with a kill. Pitt got out 5-1 off of a kill from Babcock, an ace from Valeria Vazquez Gomez, and an error by UofL.
Points bounced around as Louisville slowly got back into the mix, getting within two ar 8-6 after kills from DeBeer and a solo block from Cresse. Pitt’s Babcock recorded her 20th to give the Panthers a 9-6 lead, and Cresse answered with a kill of her own.
Babcock tallied one more before the Cards went on 5-0 run following kills from Robins, DeBeer, and Luper to take the lead 12-10. Out of the timeout, Pitt knotted the score at 12, but Luper answered with two points on her 10th kill and an ace. The Panthers
tied the score again at 14 a piece, but DeBeer answered with her 10th kill of the match. Pittsburgh went on a fast 3-0 run to pull ahead 17-15, but DeBeer had another answer and ended the run on a solo block. Louisville eventually went down 20-17 and took
its first timeout of the set after two kills from Pitt. The Cards recorded an error following the timeout and Pitt added one of its own as points went back and forth, until the Panthers eventually led 23-19 and Louisville burned its first timeout. UofL answered
with two points after the timeout, which caused Pitt to use its second timeout of the set. After that timeout, the Cards extended to a 4-0 run and tied the score at 23 off kills from Maldonado Diaz and a block from Kong and DeBeer. An attack error from Louisville
saw Pitt get to the first set point at 24-23, but a kill from DeBeer saw the set being extended. The Panthers added another kill to earn the second set point at 25-24, but DeBeer answered again with a kill. A block from Pittsburgh got them third set point
at 26-25 and DeBeer responded with yet another kill. Pitt took fourth set point at 27-26 on a kill, before Louisville went on a 3-0 run to tie, lead, and win the set. Luper tied the set with a kill, Kamden Schrand served an ace to lead, and Kong and Maldonado
Diaz teamed up for a block to win the set 29-27.
Set 4: Louisville 25, Pittsburgh 17
A kill from Kong and a solo block from DeBeer marked the first two points in favor of the Cards. With Louisville leading 2-0, DeBeer went down with an injury during the third point and did not return to the match; the point was replayed
and freshman outside hitter Payton Petersen replaced DeBeer for the remainder of the set. Pitt answered with a kill before Maldonado Diaz added her eighth kill of the set. The Panthers added a point, but Cresse responded with a kill and Maldonado Diaz served
an ace to put Louisville up 5-2. Pittsburgh tallied one more kill before the Louisville defense posted two blocks from Cresse/Petersen and Cresse/Cabello to go up 7-3. Pitt used its first timeout of the set, but Petersen kept the scoring going for the Cards
with two straight aces, which had the Panthers calling their second timeout down 9-3. A kill from Pittsburgh ended the 4-0 UofL run, and Pitt went on a short 3-0 run of their own to pull them within three at 9-6. At 10-7, Louisville started another 4-0 run
after kills from Luper, Maldonado Diaz, and Petersen and Cabello’s second ace of the game. The Panthers’ Babcock recorded her 30th kill to end the run, but Maldonado Diaz responded quickly. Points were traded as the Cards continued to extend their lead, going
up by eight points four different times. Cresse stuffed a solo block and knocked down three kills, while Maldonado Diaz and Luper both continued to add to the kill column. The first set point came for UofL at 24-16 after Maldonao Diaz’s 14th kill of the match.
Pitt added one more kill, but Petersen sealed Louisville’s second-ever NCAA Championship Finals appearance on a kill.
Match Notes 12.19.2024
Louisville Cardinals (30-5) vs. Pittsburgh Panthers (33-2) NCAA Tournament National Semifinal
Louisville Cardinals (30-5)
-Louisville advances to its second National Championship match in program history to play the winner of the Penn State/Nebraska match.
-This is the Cardinals first appearance in the
contest since 2022, when they were the runner-up to Texas.
-As a team, Louisville hit .320 with 65 kills, 54 digs, and 12 blocks.Sofia Maldonado Diaz hit a Louisville-career high 14 kills and libero Elena Scott had 14 digs.
-Charitie Luper, Anna DeBeer, and Maldonado Diaz led the Cardinals with 14 kills each.Louisville came into the game as the No. 4 national seed and a No. 1 seed in the Louisville quadrant of the bracket.
-Louisville now leads the all-time series against Pitt 21-18, claiming its first victory over the Panthers this season after falling short in the first two contests.
-This is the third straight season that the Cardinals and Pitt have met in the NCAA tournament, seeing Pitt take the matchup 3-2 in 2023, and Louisville finishing on top 3-2 in 2022.
-After coming up short in the first set of the match, the Cards bounced back and took the next three sets to win 3-1.
-Louisville had four members on the AVCA All-Region Team in Anna DeBeer, Cara Cresse, Charitie Luper, and Elena Scott.
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