Cards volleyball downs Duke -- Latest Volleyball Top Ten Seeds --MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 DUKE DOWNED BY UOFL IN FOUR SETS

A Sunday trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Duke University campus for the Louisville Volleyball squad resulted in a four set win for Cards. 

Louisville takes the match 25-15, 25-21, 23-25 and 25-16 over the Blue Devils to improve to a perfect 21-0 for the 2021 season and 11-0 in ACC contests. UofL's win drops Duke to 13-10 overall and 4-8 in ACC contests. 

As we've come to expect, the Cards shared the wealth in the road win. Claire Chaussee producing 14 kills, Anna DeBeer and Anna Stevenson following with 13 and Aiko Jones good for 12 kills. The Cards hit a pretty decent .281 for the match, compared to Duke's .212 hitting number. 

In the first set, Louisville came out ready to conduct business. The Cards jumped to an early 9-3 lead in the opening set and bumped that up to 18-9 with a 5-0 run in the set. This one could have been an even bigger blowout in the opening set, but Duke managed a 4-0 run late to cut Louisville's lead to 24-15.  Anna DeBeer said "enough" to the Durham school's rally and ended the set with a kill for the Cards 10-point, first set win. 

Duke stayed competitive early to open sett two. Louisville led only 8-7 early on and the home squad battled the Cards to a 16-16 tie. But, that would be as close as the Blue Devils could get in the rest of the second set...Louisville responded with a 8-4 run to sit in the driver's seat 24-20 and it was Anna DeBeer once again who closed the door on the Devils with a kill for the 25-21 second set shutdown.  

After the halftime break, Duke came out with a renewed purpose. They opened up with the first four points and were tied with the Cards at 10-10 before an Ayden Bartlett service ace for the Cards. Louisville and Duke went back and forth the rest of the set, tied at 17. Rachel Richardson came up with a couple of Duke kills to give the Blue Devils a lead they would not relinquish, though, and despite a Chaussee kill which tied the game at 23-23, Ade Owokoniran put the Devils back ahead 24-23 with a kill and an attack error by the Cards gave the set to Duke by two. Duke is only the third ACC squad to take a set from the Cards this season. 

Louisville responded in the fourth set with early kills from Anna Stevenson and Chaussee to grab a 4-2 lead. The Cards were able to stretch that out to 10-6 on a Chaussee service ace and then went on a 11-7 run to grab a 15-9 advantage after a Stevenson kill. It was 18-14 Cards after a kill from Duke's Lizzie Fleming, but the Cards finished with a flourish and ran off the next five points. Louisville took game and match when Duke committed a service error, followed by a Cards block from "The Anna's" to give Louisville the nine-point fourth set "W".

The Cards will put that 21-0 record back on the road again this weekend when they return to the Carolinas for matches against NC State on Friday and UNC on Sunday. No word yet on whether our Jeff McAdams will zap his ride with the battery charger and return for another weekend of negotiating the West Virginia Turnpike and re-visiting the land of Biscuitville and Bojangles.. 

LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL ATOP THE DI WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL TOP TEN RANKINGS. 

The Sunday reveal of who the Division I women's Volleyball committee thinks the top ten teams are was a pleasant surprise for Cardinal Volleyball fans. Louisville is atop the committee's list, followed by Texas, Wisconsin, Pitt and Kentucky. Rounding out this initial ranking report are Nebraska, Ohio State, Baylor, Georgia Tech and UCLA. 

Louisville has defeated the 4,5,6 and 9 seeds in this bracket and that is a good argument for the Cards grabbing the top spot. Yes, there is a lot of Volleyball still to be played this season, but it's a great honor to be atop the pack in this reveal

Want to know more about the decision-making behind the rankings? Check out the link below:  

LINK: Breaking down the reveal

Have a marvelous Monday 

paulie