Volleyball Sweeps; Soccer Finale -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Manages Sweep in South Bend

It may not have been the prettiest sweep in history, but at the end of the evening, Louisville volleyball left the Purcell Pavilion with a 3-0 victory. The Cards finished with a final score of 25-21, 25-19, 25-23. For a sweep, the match took much longer than expected, since the two teams played a half dozen or so points in the second set twice. Louisville was found to be out of rotation in the set, but not until the Cards had gone on an extended run. However, the rules state that when the officials determine the rotation error, they can "rewind" the match as far as needed to rectify the issue. Louisville still went on to win the set, so no harm no foul; just weird. 

It wasn't a stellar hitting night for either team. Notre Dame struggled to a 0.183 percentage with 18 errors, but the Cards managed just 0.282 with 15 errors of their own. Both teams blocked decently, with the Irish actually edging the Cards by one block. The stat sheet credits Notre Dame with 8.5 blocks due to a triple block, but since that's not how the points work, they only had eight blocks compared to Louisville's seven. That means the Cards took advantage of Notre Dame hitting errors and their own relatively clean play to stay on top. 

The Cards also had fewer aces in the match, but they won the battle at the service line with a net +1. Louisville had two aces and six errors while Notre Dame had four and nine. The Irish also committed two setting errors, giving the Cards a couple of additional free points. 

Louisville was led offensively by Chloe Chicoine, who finished with 14 kills. Chicoine had the highest number of kills in the match and she was the only Cardinal to eclipse double-digits. She finished with a double-double, as well, adding 10 blocks to her stat line. She also assisted a block. Cara Cresse returned to form a bit, coming home second with nine kills. Kalyssa Blackshear had eight and Payton Petersen had seven. Cresse also led the team in hitting percentage at 0.467. 

Defensively, Hannah Sherman continued to show her strength in the middle with a solo block (Louisville's only solo block) and two assists. Cresse had four block assists and Blackshear had three. Kamden Schrand had 14 digs, and the team was able to stay mostly in system, as Nayelis Cabello was forced into only six digs. Notre Dame may have finally picked up on Cabello's offense, as she was limited to two kills and two errors on eight attempts. 

Escaping South Bend with a win is nice, and doing so with a sweep is even better. Louisville will get another crack and Notre Dame on Saturday, as the ACC volleyball travel partner quirk means a home-and-home week. That match will be Louisville's final volleyball match of the season in the KFC Yum! Center, as all of their remaining home matches will return to L&N Arena. Basketball makes scheduling in the Yum! a bit more of a hassle. The two teams will get underway at 3PM and plenty of tickets are still available. 

Women's Soccer Hosts SMU

Louisville women's soccer will host their regular season finale tonight against the SMU Mustangs. There is still all to play for on the final ACC matchday of the season. With eight games tonight, every team is in action, save Syracuse. As is typical on Decision Days, most games will take place at the same time. Two games (Wake/FSU and Stanford/Cal) will finish before the final game (NC State/UNC) kicks off, but all other matches will overlap. 

As Jared wrote on Tuesday, it's a pretty straightforward task for the Cards to make the ACC Tournament. All they need to do is win tonight's game. With a victory, the Cards can finish no worse than sixth place. With a draw, they can still make the ACC tournament, but they will need a few results to fall their way. Jared wrote about those scenarios, so I won't belabor them too much. 

The best the Cards can finish is third, but that's a bit unlikely. Simply, Louisville would finish third if Wake, BC, and Clemson beat FSU, Virginia, and Duke, respectively. The BC win is the biggest hiccup there. Tiebreakers could play a major role in the seeding, but there are too many scenarios for a draw, so let's only look at a Louisville win. If the Cards are in a two-way tie, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head. Louisville loses a two-way tie with Florida State outright, but they drew Virginia, so they would move to the second tiebreaker, which is wins over common conference opponents. 

Coincidentally, Louisville and Virginia played very different schedules this season and have only four common opponents: FSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Boston College. Both teams lost to FSU, and if we are assuming they are tied on 20 points, both teams will have beaten the remaining three teams. The next tiebreaker is conference goal difference. Louisville's season goal difference is a staggering +37, easily beating Virginia's +22, but the Cards' offensive production has fallen significantly in conference. Louisville is +4 in conference play, while Virginia is +9. The Cards would need to beat SMU by six more goals than however many Virginia beats BC by to win the tiebreaker outright and by five more to advance to the next tiebreaker. 

The fourth tiebreaker is goals scored in conference matches. Louisville has 11, while Virginia has 19. For Louisville to win the fourth tiebreaker without winning the third would be an incredible evening of soccer in Louisville and Charlottesville. Here's a funny quirk. The fifth tiebreaker is goals allowed in conference matches. Why? If the teams are tied on goal difference and on goals scored, they must, by definition, have given up the same number of goals. The next tiebreaker is head-to-head results against conference opponents highest rated in the standings, but we already mentioned that Louisville and Virginia have the same results against their four common opponents, so that one is moot. As a result, if Louisville manages to somehow match Virginia on goals scored and goal difference, the tiebreaker would be a coinflip. 

The three-way tie scenario, in which Louisville, Virginia, and FSU are all on 20 points is actually rather simple. Since FSU beat both teams, they win the first tiebreaker (total points in head-to-head conference game results) and then Louisville and Virginia are sorted out on the two-team tiebreaker described above. 

While a Louisville win guarantees they're in the ACC tournament, the seeding possibilities show how tight the points have been this season. A Louisville win could see the Cards finish in any position from 3rd to 6th. We'll see what happens at the end of the final whistle. Kickoff is at 7PM in Lynn Stadium. Dress warm and stay dry. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case