Volleyball Plays for it All
Today is the day. It's been circled on Louisville Volleyball's calendar since the Final Four coming to Louisville was announced several years ago.
The chance to play for a national title on a team's home floor doesn't come around often. The last team to accomplish the feat is a bit debatable, with some media outlets identifying Nebraska in 2006 (with one "Dani Busboom" playing as Libero), but that was in Omaha at what was then called the Qwest Center, and is now the CHI Health Center, while the University of Nebraska is in Lincoln. Before that you have to go back to 1991 when UCLA won it all in Pauley Pavilion.
Today will also make history in another way, and if you've paid much attention to the volleyball coverage in the media, you've likely heard this already. On the opposite side of the net, the head coach for Penn State is also a woman, Katie Schumaker-Cawley. The volleyball national championship has never been won by a team with a woman as a head coach, and today it's guaranteed, regardless of who wins.
So let's get down to this matchup. The teams did meet early in the season, where Louisville, frankly, had a terrible performance, losing in a sweep, 25-15, 25-19, 25-13. Now, that match was in Rec Hall in State College, which is a brutal place for visiting teams to play. And this Louisville team has developed quite a bit since then. Of course, PSU will have developed in that time period as well.
The two big threats for the Nittany Lions are outside hitter Jess Mruzik and opposite hitter Caroline Jurevicius. Both bring a lot of power, and intelligent play to the court, though neither are particularly tall. Mruzik is listed at 6'1", and Jurevicius is 6'2", giving a better chance for Louisville's all-important block to be effective against them.
The big question mark coming into this game is what Anna DeBeer's status is. There's been no word beyond what we've heard from DBK's press conference where she said DeBeer was "day to day". She had an MRI on Friday and while there has been no word on the results, a "day to day" status suggests that no structural damage was found. She's been wearing a boot, as was seen at the All-American banquet, and certainly getting routine treatments with the Louisville sports medicine folks.
What changes in the lineup for the Cards would result if DeBeer can't play? Some people have suggested radical changes, including such proposals as shifting to a 5-1 offense and moving Sofia Maldonado Diaz over to the left side. Personally, I think we saw the answer in the 4th set Thursday after DeBeer left the court. Payton Petersen looks like she's ready and capable of slotting right in and holding her own in that position.
This is a big day for volleyball, and for UofL volleyball in particular, with messages of support arriving for one or both teams from all over. Luminaries such as Dawn Staley (head coach of South Carolina WBB) and no less than Billie Jean King (tennis legend) expressing joy and support for both coaches and ascendancy of a woman head coach to a national championship.
On the Louisville side, Pat Kelsey took the first four minutes or so of his press conference over the weekend to praise the Louisville volleyball team, and the sport of volleyball as a whole, before getting down to previewing his team's game against Florida State. We've seen social media posts with support from Donovan "Spida" Mitchell, Jeff Walz, Harry Douglass, Deion Branch, Peyton Siva, and more...and those are just the "famous" people. My personal social media timelines have been filled with less notable people (though all still awesome) who aren't particularly known for their affiliation with Louisville Volleyball singing the praises of the team and the excitement of the game.
The Louisville "Fan HQ" is O'Shea's on main street and would be a good place to gather before (and maybe after) the match to get hyped with other Cards fans, and if you don't have tickets to the event, they will have the match on all of their screens you can watch. The "Red Carpet Arrival" will be in front of the KFC Yum! Center at approximately 1pm, doors open at 1:30, and the match starts at 3pm.
The match will be televised on ABC, so it will be easily accessible to anyone who wants to see the pinnacle of college volleyball competition.
If you do have tickets, and want to join in on the C-A-R-D-S cheer when Penn State calls a timeout, I'll be in section 114, row G, so you can find me there and follow along.
Basketball Packages Up a Win
Louisville looked to get back to their winning ways last night and did so in a big way over Memphis, taking home the win, 87-68.
The Cards did take some time to settle before starting to really pull out a lead, like all of the first quarter, joining Memphis in a 21 point tie after the first 10 minutes.
The Cards would take charge in the second quarter, however, pulling out to a 15 point lead for halftime, 51-36. The 3rd extended that lead just a bit with another four point margin. The score was 73-52 after 30 minutes of play. The Tigers would "win" the fourth quarter, but by only a two point margin, far too little to catch up to the Cards significant lead at that point.
Freshman guard Tajianna Roberts led the way for the Cards, earning 23 points with a trio of steals and a couple of assists. She was supported by Jayda Curry and Olivia Cochran in what was a double-double for Cochran made up of 12 points and 13 rebounds, and add in a pair of blocks on the effort. Curry had 14 points, five assists, three rebounds, and two steals.
FRED Report
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| Fred MacMurray would approve...Cards win in Memphis. |
F - The Cards went seven for ten from the charity strip. That just sneaks in under the wire for a letter. As has been mentioned, in my approach to the FRED report, I give a lower case "f" for 70-75% and the upper case for above 75%, while other writers consider this an all-or-nothing "F" category.
R - UofL did outrebound the Tigers, 35-27, which is a fairly significant margin. Eight extra possessions is big in a game. The Tigers did win the offensive board battle, getting 12 off of their own attempts compared to nine that continued play for the Cards. I'm feeling generous today and go ahead and award the capital letter on this one, but I'd like to see more offensive rebounding. "R"
E - It was a slow start, for both teams to be fair, with the score only 7-5 after four and a half minutes of play, but the second quarter made up for it. Once again, however, the Cards kinda fell off at the end, narrowly "losing" the 4th quarter, so I'm only going to award the lower case letter here. It was a good win, with spans of good play, but now they need to work on the consistency and finishing strong. "e"
D - The defense showed up pretty well for the Cards, with 10 steals and three blocks, definitely dominating the Tigers in that phase of the game with their eight steals and no blocks. Capital "D", here.
So, a f-R-e-D, is a pretty good result on the Fred report and it shows with a nearly 20 point win.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Case, Paulie, and I made the call yesterday for the CCRHP...though Case just barely did, joining right as we went live!
After a bit of idle chatter including some job search advice, we got down to the meat and potatoes, or in this context, Basketball and Volleyball.
It was a great show with great insights, check it out!
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JMcA
Great comeback game! The team played much better. Tajianna & Ja'Leah really got after it on the defensive end. Everyone chipped in for a good road victory.
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