LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It wasn’t fairly “all or nothing” the place the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Final Four was involved for the University of Louisville. But it was fairly darn shut.
An entire season, with that gleaming pot of aggressive gold, an opportunity to play within the Final Four on the KFC Yum! Center, on the finish of the rainbow. The strain of expectations. The schedule that coach Dani Busboom Kelly put collectively, which wound this system by way of many of the Top 10 and a few of it twice. The two losses on the finish of the common season. Staring elimination within the face in opposition to Northern Iowa.
All these probabilities for failure. And then got here the primary sport of the final match on their quest for the promised land, in opposition to Stanford on Saturday night time in Freedom Hall. Stanford powered to an 11-3 lead, and also you questioned if the Cardinals’ magic from a powerful victory over Purdue two nights earlier had evaporated.
Nah.
This Louisville group doesn’t flinch that simply. The Cardinals destroyed Stanford within the second set, 24-14, then outdueled Stanford within the third set 25-20 earlier than locking down this system’s third Final Four in 4 years, in a 3-1 victory over a Stanford group ranked No. 5 within the nation, an ACC rival that the Cards beat twice in three conferences.
Louisville’s volleyball group celebrates on the finish of its 3-1 Elite Eight victory over Stanford.
“You know, an epic second for this program,” Busboom Kelly mentioned. “When the Final Four obtained introduced right here in 2024 it was like a dream. Can we ever do that? Will now we have a group that may make it after which to undergo the season with all of the strain? You know, we have been speaking about this nearly each single week, and to have the ability to get by way of these moments and simply play how we did tonight was unbelievable. I’m simply actually, actually happy with what our group did, and excited and searching ahead to a few extra matches.”
The win doesn’t occur with out Louisville native and senior Anna DeBeer, who acted personally insulted after the first-set loss and went on a tear within the second. Nor does it occur with out Charitie Luper, who shared the group lead in kills with DeBeer at 13.
“We had been truly simply speaking about this and the way, like, we persevered by way of a lot this 12 months, and we checked out one another within the eyes and, proper once they had been placing strain on us early, they had been serving tremendous aggressive, all of us simply knew that that is not how we had been going to play,” DeBeer mentioned. “And I simply trusted each single particular person on this group. And that is sort of how we obtained out of that. And we obtained out of it, and we began gaining the momentum to complete out that first, and though we got here brief, I simply felt like our group was getting again in it. So coming into that second, we knew we had it.”
Both made the all-regional group, together with libero Elena Scott.
And for the second time in her profession DeBeer was a regional MVP.
“It’s a loopy feeling,” DeBeer mentioned. “Knowing it was in Louisville, and realizing how laborious it has been to get there up to now, yeah. We’ve made two Final Fours earlier than, however realizing it was so laborious each, single match, all of the strain, all of the issues you need to take into consideration, and to lastly do it once more for my final 12 months, and similar to this, I believe it was simply actually the seniors stepping up, like each single particular person actually simply gave it their all to be again in Yum once more. We had a little bit saying, ‘It begins and ends in Yum!’ We began in Yum with all these preseason video games. And yeah, we had our moments this 12 months, however this group has wished it actually dangerous, and that simply reveals our combat and our grit and the psychological toughness now we have, and that is finally what helped us pull it out right now.”
Louisville will face its outdated nemesis from the ACC, Pittsburgh, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday within the first nationwide semifinal within the KFC Yum! Center, the winner heads to the NCAA Championship sport. Louisville has been there as soon as earlier than. This time, they’re hoping a little bit hometown magic would possibly assist.
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