Volleyballs Opens Up NCAA Tournament Against Chicago State -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Happy Friday, Cards fans! Jared checking in here for Daryl. She graciously traded days with me this week so I could edit photos from the Louisville women's basketball game Wednesday night. Sadly, Daryl had to recap a not-so-great loss. I, on the other hand, get to preview the excitement of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Cards Face Chicago State in First Round

Louisville Volleyball opens up the NCAA Tournament tonight against Chicago State. The 1-seeded Cards will play the latter of the two matches tonight as 8-seed Northern Iowa and Illinois will square off at 4:00pm. With the Cards and Cougars set to begin at 7:00pm, we do not expect any major delays even if the first match runs long.

The match will be aired on ESPN+. All first and second round matches in the NCAA Tournament are exclusively aired on ESPN+ regardless of what other streaming options the host sites might have.

This is the 33rd NCAA Tournament appearance for Louisville, who has two Final Fours and a National Runner-Up finish since Dani Busboom Kelly took over as head coach. 

Louisville went 25-5 this season and finished second in the ACC with a 17-3 mark. 19 of the 30 opponents Louisville faced made it to the NCAA Tournament.

THE FOE

Chicago State went 19-9 this season. They cruised through the Northeast Conference, going 13-1 in the regular season and winning the Northeast Conference Tournament. The Cougars did not face many "Power Five" teams, but fell in all of them- Cincinnati (3-0), Indiana (3-1), and Minnesota (3-0).

Patrycja Lagida leads the offense with 3.39 kills per set. Karly Klaer (2.72) and Zahara Quraishi (2.27) have also produced strong numbers on the offensive end. Chicago State also utilizes aggressive serves to help with offensive production. The Panthers average nearly two aces per set.

Defensively, Andrea Calderon has been the go-to player with 4.48 digs per set. Karly Klaer (2.55), Wiktoria Zagumny (2.20), and Patrycja Lagida (2.15) have all provided solid back row defense. 

NCAA Volleyball Tournament Updates

NCAA Tournaments, regardless of the sport, are always enjoyable for me. You can't beat watching several games all back-to-back with all teams putting everything on the line.

This year's tournament opened up with an upset as Loyola Chicago swept 5-seed BYU. Upsets are bound to happen when postseason rolls around but it's rare to see an upset happen in sweep fashion. Another upset on the night was Ole Miss taking down 7-seed Florida State in five sets.

We did see 7-seed Georgia Tech hang out to beat Tennessee in five sets. The Yellow Jackets won the third set 32-30. The last of the three ACC teams in action last night was 2-seed SMU. The Mustangs had a little trouble against Wichita State, but prevailed. The two teams had an extended first set with SMU winning 28-26.

Looking into the great Commonwealth of Kentucky, two of the four Kentucky schools played last night. Western Kentucky fell to 6-seed Minnesota 3-1. The Hilltoppers scored 20 or more points in all four sets. 3-seed Kentucky was also in action as they easily took down Cleveland State.

Besides Louisville, the other ACC teams in action are 1-seed Pitt vs Morehead State, 8-seed North Carolina vs Yale, 8-seed Miami vs South Dakota State, and NC State vs 6-seed Florida.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared