LOUISVILLE FALLS TO NITTANY LIONS IN FOUR SETS.
A tough Sunday for the VolleyCards, getting all the way to the DI NCAA Title match and falling to Penn State in four sets -- 23-25, 34-32, 20-25, 17-25 in the KFC YUM Center.
The Cards took out #1 Pittsburgh on their way to the championship game, but also lost their best player in Anna DeBeer in that historic win Thursday night. Did the win over Pitt take too much out of UofL? Or was it the loss of DeBeer that contributed to the loss? We'll never be able to say for sure, but they really didn't lose much of anything with Payton Petersen filling in for DeBeer...except for the foreboding presence of DeBeer on the court.
Maybe it was k just a case of Penn State, who knocked off Nebraska in the semifinal, having superior "kill" numbers -- they had 72 to UofL's 53... Jess Mruzik had 29 for the Nittany Lions, eight more that Louisville's leader -- Charitie Luper.
Maybe that seemingly never ending second set that Louisville won took it out of the Cards for the remainder of the match. Here's how Dani Busboom Kelly and student-athletes Navelis Cabello and Sofia Maldonado Diaz saw it:
Maybe it wasn't a case of Louisville playing badly at all, just a situation where Penn State played better. Only Pitt and Wisconsin had hung losses on PSU in the regular season and they did defeat #2 Nebraska twice during the season.
Was it a situation where the Cards didn't have anything to lose and benefitted from the pro--Louisville crowd for the Final Four? I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but still, doesn't lessen the disappointment of the Louisville fans who believed in the team and largely helped make up the largest crowd to ever see a NCAA Volleyball Championship match.
On this particular afternoon, Penn State proved to be the best team. But, Cardinals fans will remember this group of girls a very long time, and with the youth that returns and contributed so heavily this season, Louisville will be another force again next year in the ACC and the NCAA in volleyball.
MORE JARED ANDERSON PHOTOS
Of course not the desired result but...we made it to the LAST game of the season, would rather be playing than watching.
ReplyDeleteNot saying we would have won, but NOT the same without Anna, sure she would have impacted that match.
All in all one helluva ride and NOTHING to be ashamed about losing to Penn St.
On another note, seems the volleyball AND basketball gods are against us winning it all, got cheated out of one championship game with the no call against Cowan, and Jazz missed a bunny putback!, and then the COVID no tournament year when I thought we actually had our BEST chance with that squad👍
Saw that "no call" on Cowan live and if I was referee commissioner, I would have fired that ref on the spot.
ReplyDeletePaulie