Per University of Louisville Sports Release:
LINCOLN, Neb. — The No. seeded Cardinals fell in five sets to Texas A&M in the NCAA Volleyball Regional Semifinals Friday evening in the Bob Devaney Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska.
The Cards lost 23-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-12 to finish their season at 26-7. Junior outside hitter Chloe Chicoine had 26 kills, hit 300 with eight digs and three blocks. Payton Petersen added 18 kills, an ace and 13 digs. Senior Cara Cresse delivered eight blocks, adding seven kills and an ace. Setter Nayelis Cabello had 49 assists, 14 digs and six blocks. Louisville hit .229 with 65 kills, five aces and 14 blocks.
Read more: Louisville Volleyball Falls in Five to Texas A&M
With the win, Texas A&M (26-4) advances to play the winner of the Nebraska/Kansas match on Sunday. The Aggies hit .277 for the match with 69 kills, two aces and 17 blocks. Logan Lenicky led the offensive charge with 20 kills with an ace and seven blocks. Kyndal Stowers added 17 kills with Ifenna Cos-Okpalla adding 12 blocks and nine kills.
The Aggies used a 5-0 run early in the first set to take a 5-1 lead. Three kills by Payton Petersen brought the Cards back to within three at 9-6. The Cards trailed 15-10 at the media timeout as the Aggies’ hitting percentage hit .625. Petersen and Chloe Chicoine each scored a pair of kills to cut the TAMU lead to two at 17-15 and the Aggies called timeout. Cresse and Chicoine blocked Emily Helmuth as the Cards pulled within one at 17-16 and then tied at 18 on another Cresse block. Petersen’s sixth kill gave the Cards their first lead at 21-20. A&M tied at 21 but a service error by Kyndall Stowers and a kill by Cresse gave UofL a 23-21 lead and forced TAMU to use its final timeout. Kills by Cresse and Petersen gave the Cards the 25-23 win in the first stanza. UofL hit .457 in the set with four blocks. Petersen led with seven kills.
In the second set, a five-point run put the Cards up 6-3 but Texas A&M was able to tie at seven and retook the lead at 8-7 on a kill by Helmuth. Molly Urban came off the bench to serve three straight points to take the lead at 11-10. After trading points to tie at 12, Texas A&M scored three straight to take a 15-12 lead into the media timeout. A 3-1 run by the Aggies put them up 19-15 before Dan Meske called timeout. An ace by Cabello, a net call and a block by Hannah Sherman brought UofL to within two at 22-20and force and Aggie timeout. Cabello landed her second ace of the 5-0 run to tie at 22 an A&M had to burn its final timeout of the set. The Cards spread their run to eight straight to win the second set 25-22 to take a two-set lead into the break.
In the third set, there were already nine ties and three lead changes by the 15-13 media timeout with the Cards holding on to the lead. The teams traded points until Texas A&M scored two straight to take a 22-20 lead and Meske called timeout. Coming out of the huddle, Petersen landed a kill to pull within one but a kill by Helmuth gave the Aggies a 23-21 lead and Meske called timeout again. The ploy worked as Chicoine connected with Cabello twice to knot the score at 23 and spark a TAMU timeout. The Aggies got a pair of kills from Kyndal Stowers to take the third set 25-23.
In the fourth set, Texas A&M popped out to a 4-1 lead and forced the Cards to play catch-up well into the set. The Aggies had two straight blocks to take a 15-8 lead going into the media timeout. A kill by Logan Lednicky and then a block by Cos-Okpalla put the Aggies up 17-8 and the Cards called timeout to chill the server. Although Louisville scored twice coming out of the timeout, two UofL hitting errors gave the Aggies a 19-10 lead. After Meske used his final timeout, down 19-11, UofL pushed back with a 7-2 run to close the gap to four at 21-17 and force the Aggies to call timeout. A Sherman kill cut the lead to three at 21-18 but two hitting errors put TAMU back up 23-18. Two straight kills by Stowers gave the Aggies the 25-18 win and forced a fifth set. UofL hit .000 in the set but did land a pair of aces and three blocks.
The fifth set saw the teams continue to trade points with Louisville taking its first lead at 6-5 on a kill by Cresse. UofL had the lead at 8-7 at the side switch. Cresse landed an ace after the switch but the Aggies scored on a block to tie at nine and then took the lead at 10-9 on a Cardinal hitting error. UofL called timeout, but the Aggies scored twice to take a 12-10 and Meske used his last timeout. The Cards managed to get to 12 but two straight points gave the set and match to the Aggies at 15-12.
