LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Penn State’s ladies’s volleyball staff gained an historic nationwide semifinal match Thursday to arrange much more historical past on Sunday: For the primary time for the reason that NCAA event started for the game in 1981, a lady will win the title as head coach.
That’s assured, as each groups in Sunday’s remaining (ABC, 3 p.m. ET) are coached by ladies. Penn State is led by Katie Schumacher-Cawley, whereas its opponent within the championship spherical, Louisville, is led by Dani Busboom Kelly. Both ladies gained NCAA titles as gamers — Schumacher-Cawley with Penn State in 1999 and Busboom Kelly with Nebraska in 2006.
It appeared as if Busboom Kelly, whose Cardinals gained the primary semifinal 3-1 over Pitt, would play her alma matter within the remaining, as Nebraska took a 2-0 lead over the Nittany Lions in Thursday’s second match.
But then Penn State staged an epic rally, changing into simply the sixth staff ever to get a reverse sweep — profitable the final three units after dropping the primary two — within the remaining 4. The Nittany Lions are the one program to try this twice; in addition they obtained a reverse sweep to win the championship match over Texas in 2009.
Nebraska was the final staff to do it, in opposition to Illinois within the 2018 semifinals. But Thursday, the shocked Huskers misplaced simply their second NCAA event match in any spherical after profitable the primary two units. They are actually 104-2 in that state of affairs.
The Penn State-Nebraska match completed after midnight, ending with the Nittany Lions profitable the fifth set 15-13. Jess Mruzik led Penn State with 26 kills.
It’s been an emotional yr for the Nittany Lions, with Schumacher-Cawley teaching regardless of being recognized with breast most cancers.
In the evening’s opening match, Louisville delighted the gang on the KFC Yum Center in downtown Louisville. The Cardinals performed with the strain of desperately eager to make it to the ultimate 4 in its house metropolis. Now, the Cardinals have made all of it the way in which to the final match of the season.
Pitt had defeated the Cardinals twice in ACC play within the common season, however Louisville gained the match that mattered most.
“That strain is suffocating, and there have been moments on this season after we have been suffocated,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly stated of the Cardinals’ want to get to the ultimate 4. “But this staff actually rose above that, and we needed to put a variety of work in, and a variety of sincere conversations about what it was going to take to beat that.”
Then in Thursday’s match, the Cardinals needed to overcome a number of different issues: The Panthers profitable the primary set, trailing Pitt early within the second set, going through 4 set factors within the third set and dropping senior standout Anna DeBeer to an ankle harm initially of the fourth set.
Louisville prevailed over all of it, leaving Pitt to cope with a fourth consecutive season ending within the nationwide semifinals. Pitt additionally misplaced to Louisville within the nationwide semis in 2022. The Panthers’ solely loss this season earlier than Thursday was 3-2 at SMU in October. Olivia Babcock had 33 kills to steer Pitt, which completed the season 33-2.
“We’re hurting,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher stated. “This is likely one of the harder losses of my profession. It definitely appears like a missed alternative.”
The Panthers and Cardinals have turn into the ACC’s strongest packages lately, though Stanford and Cal becoming a member of the league this yr introduced a variety of volleyball status. Stanford has gained a file 9 NCAA titles, and Cal has made it to the ultimate 4.
Pitt gained the regular-season matches in opposition to Louisville 3-2 in Pittsburgh on Oct. 25 and 3-1 in Louisville on Nov. 27. The Cardinals have been the fourth of the No. 1 seeds — behind Pitt, Nebraska and Penn State — and have been practically bounced within the second spherical by Northern Iowa in some of the intense matches of the NCAA event. But Louisville prevailed over UNI 22-20 within the fifth set, which featured 9 match factors.
The Cardinals swept Purdue and beat Stanford 3-1 to make their third journey to the ultimate 4. Thursday, they have been led by DeBeer, Charitie Luper and Sofia Maldonado Diaz every getting 14 kills.
When DeBeer went out after injuring her ankle with the Cardinals up 2-0 within the fourth set, freshman Payton Petersen got here in and had two kills and 4 essential digs to assist the Cardinals win. Petersen’s mom, Bobbi, coaches Northern Iowa and her twin sister performs for UNI, so it had already been an emotional event for Payton, having defeated them.
“It simply felt bizarre,” Petersen stated of going through her mother and sister in an NCAA event match, including that UNI pushing Louisville so exhausting ended up serving to the Cardinals enhance their play for the remainder of the event.
When DeBeer initially went down Thursday, Petersen figured she would be capable of shake it off and return. When it grew to become clear she would not be capable of try this, Pedersen stated, “I needed to do that for her. She’s meant a lot to me.”
As for DeBeer, Busboom Kelly stated in a interview on the ESPN broadcast proper after the match that the skin hitter can be again for Sunday’s remaining. But within the postmatch information convention, she tempered that.
“If there’s any inkling she will be able to play, she’s the kind of child that is going to get on the market and play,” Busboom Kelly stated of DeBeer. “But we can’t know extra till tomorrow.”
