VolleyCards Fall to Pitt — Happy Thanksgiving — THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Falls at Home to Pitt

Louisville volleyball concluded their home finale of the regular by welcoming #1 Pittsburgh to the KFC Yum! Center. 12,510 fans packed the arena for one of the biggest NCAA Volleyball matches of the season. The crowd was the third largest in Louisville history for a home regular season match. 

Set One: Pitt 25, Louisville 23

After Pitt jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Cards were able to battle back and bring it within one multiple times. The Panthers relied on aggressive blocking to push ahead12-8. Pitt led 15-11 at the first media timeout. Louisville called its first timeout when a Pitt block pushed the Panthers lead to 18-14. Service and attack errors by the Cards gave Pitt a sizable lead but the Cards rallied to the deficit to one, forcing Pitt to call a timeout. The Panthers survived and took the first set by a slim margin.

Set Two: Louisville 25, Pitt 18

The Cards and Panthers traded points early on before Louisville was able to gain an 8-5 advantage thanks to a monster block, forcing a Pitt timeout. Aggressive serving and blocking propelled the Cards to a 14-9 lead. Pitt wasn’t ready to go away, though, and cut the score to 15-13 and then 17-16. Louisville bent, but did not break, and went back up 20-16, leading to Pitt to burn a timeout. Out of the timeout, Louisville stayed hot, winning three more in a row and then going on to win the second set by seven.

Set Three: Pitt 25, Louisville 20

Attack errors and serve receive errors by Louisville gave Pitt an early 6-3 edge. The Panthers pushed their lead to 9-5. After Pitt went up 11-5, the Cards called a timeout to regroup. After going down 14-6, the Cards went on a 3-0 run and Pitt took their first timeout of the set. Pitt took a commanding lead in the third set, going up 21-15. The Cards answered with a quick 3-0 spurt. The Panthers put the rally to rest, winning the third set by five.

Set Four: Pitt 25, Louisville 

Similar to the second set, the two foes traded points early on before the Panthers took a 9-7 advantage. A questionable call by the officials that had the entire arena in an uproar extended their lead another point… the officials didn’t have a strong explanation there so we’ll say Pitt got a freebie. The Panthers continued to pull ahead and extended their lead to seven at 20-13. The Panthers went on cruise control the rest of the way for the win.

Louisville hit .289 on the night. Serving continued to be a struggle as the Cards had more errors (9) than aces (6). Anna DeBeer led the team with 14 kills and Reese Robins added 10. Pitt hit .310 and Olivia Babcock had one of the best games of her career with 23 kills, five digs, and five blocks. Too many unforced errors, whether attack errors, service errors, or serve receive errors were the Achilles Heel for the Cards tonight.

All of Louisville’s losses have come to teams in the top four. Unfortunately, last night was one of them as Pitt played one of their best matches all season and Louisville seemed to be a step slow at times. Don’t worry, Louisville will get their revenge when it matters- in the NCAA Tournament. 

Louisville hits the road to face #7 Stanford on Black Friday to close out the regular season. The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be at 6:00pm on Sunday. The Cards will play the opening weekend at the KFC Yum! Center.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the past, we have chosen to forgo a regular article on Thanksgiving in recognition of the holiday. However, we are quite fortunate to have a top-five volleyball team playing on national tv on Thanksgiving Eve that we get to report on.

We at Cardinal Couple are thankful for the opportunity to cover so many great UofL women’s sports each year. We are also especially grateful to YOU for your constant support of everything we do. Whether you interact daily, listen to the podcast each week, or just check in every once in a while to see how things are going, we appreciate you.

Happy Thanksgiving from Jared, Paulie, Jeff, Case, Daryl and Sonya and .....Go Cards!

Jared