Cards Sweep Wolfpack in Raleigh -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Chicoine Leads All Hitters in Win

After a home-and-home series with Notre Dame last week, the Cards and Irish returned to North Carolina for their second ACC travel weekend in the Tarheel State in a row. After facing Duke and UNC last time, the two teams face NC State and Wake Forest this weekend. Louisville continued the brief run of sweeps they are on (after sweeping ND twice last week) by taking care of the Wolfpack in three sets. The win moved Louisville to 19-4 overall and 11-2 in the ACC. NC State is struggling this season, and the loss pushed them below .500 overall at 11-12 (4-9). 

Despite leading nearly wire-to-wire in all three sets (minus a few early points here and there), Louisville never really distanced themselves in the way that might have been expected over an outmatched team. The final scores were 25-19, 25-18, 25-20, which seems quite surprising given that Louisville hit .343 in the match compared to .169 for NC State. Even in a second set in which Louisville had no errors and hit .567, NC State played fairly clean with .367 (three errors) to keep it close. Part of the issue may have been that Louisville wasn't blocking nearly as much as they usually do against a team that they should dominate. The Cards had just nine blocks on the night. 

The Cards also had a decent night at the serving line, hitting six aces and only eight errors. They were net +2 in that battle, as NC State had just two aces and six errors. Nevertheless, Louisville came away with the win and did so in the minimum number of sets. Chloe Chicoine led all hitters in the match with 15 kills. She had just two errors and added two assists and eight digs. NC State had just one player in double-digit kills with 13. Kalyssa Blackshear was Louisville's second player in double-digits with 11. Blackshear had just one error, but NC State avoided her defensively. Somehow, Blackshear finished with no blocks. 

Cara Cresse showed out in the middle with nine kills on 11 attempts and no errors for an .818 hitting percentage (Blackshear was second in the match with .526). Cresse also had two solo blocks and three block assists. Not to be outdone, Hannah Sherman had four solo blocks. Payton Petersen (2) and Ava Utterback had the other block assists. NC State may have read their scouting report on Nayelis Cabello. Cabello had a strong 39 of Louisville's 41 assists, but she was 0-11 on attack attempts with one error. We don't really want our setter to have a negative attack percentage, but if she's the only one on the team doing so, it's not the end of the world. Kamden Schrand and Hannah Kenny both had strong nights with a pair of aces each and 16 and 11 digs, respectively. 

Louisville returns to play against Wake Forest tomorrow at 1PM. The Demon Deacons just moved ahead of Notre Dame in the conference by way of a head-to-head victory last night. Wake won 3-1 to move both teams to 5-8 in league play. Wake Forest is 11-13 overall, with non-conference losses to Cincinnati, Michigan, George Mason, Alabama, and East Carolina. They split the home-and home series with NC State a month ago. The Cards should be able to take care of business before returning home for a tough weekend against the Florida schools. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Join us this week for a special episode of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast. With the happenings in Louisville women's athletics and news around town, there will be plenty to discuss. The show will appear on our YouTube Channel and all of the regular podcast haunts around 1PM after recording. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case