NCAA women’s volleyball: How Louisville, Penn State advanced to Sunday’s national championship

In front of an NCAA-record 21,726 fans at the Yum Center in Louisville, the Louisville Cardinals and Penn State Nittany Lions won the chance to face each other in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship on Sunday.

Louisville won the first semifinal of the night. Playing on their home field, the Cardinals outlasted Pittsburgh, their ACC rival, 3-1. But not to be outdone in the drama department, Penn State pulled off a reverse sweep of Nebraska, winning three straight sets after dropping the first two.

The Louisville-Penn State matchup marks the first time two female head coaches will face each other in the title game, guaranteeing that a woman will lead her team to the NCAA title for the first time in NCAA women’s volleyball history.

How Louisville edged Pittsburgh to advance

Defense, defense, defense. Louisville outscored Pittsburgh 12-4 and used that blocking ability to kill the Panthers’ rallies before they could even get started.

That defense was especially important in the third set. Pitt had four different set points but could not convert to win the set. Louisville stayed calm and just continued to play its game to win.

“Honestly, when we play Pitt, we know we’re going to have to block them to win,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom-Kelly said. “I didn’t realize we got blocked the first two times. That’s probably why we didn’t win. It’s like we have to block some balls. Cara (Cresse) came into Game 4 and she said , I promise I’ll get two blocks in this set, and she did. I thought that kind of blew the fourth set open.”

Cardinals’ depth shines after tough injury

Louisville had to show its depth early in the fourth set. Anna DeBeer rolled her ankle badly coming down from a block. The moment DeBeer laid down on the field, the Yum Center crowd fell silent.

DeBeer is the heart of the team. Her ability to kill and find opponents’ weak points has propelled Louisville to the upper levels of volleyball. A Louisville native, she came back for her fifth year, in large part because she wanted to play for a title in her hometown. The sight of her lying on her stomach with her head in her hands was terrifying to every player on the team and every Cardinals fan in the stands.

She was helped off the field and her teammates knew what to do.

“It was just so shocking that it was to the point where we couldn’t really say anything, but our eyes spoke volumes,” Charitie Luper said after the game. “We looked at each other and we basically said I got you, I got you, I got you, we’re doing this for DeBeer. Without verbally saying things, I knew what everyone was thinking. That’s how close we are , and it’s just that we play for each other. Like Payton (Petersen) said earlier, we know DeBeer doesn’t want to go out like this. So we got this done you.”

Freshman Payton Petersen was asked to fill DeBeer’s shoes, and she had two kills and four digs in the few minutes she played.

It was that depth that made the difference for Louisville in the win over Pitt. As the Panthers slowed, Louisville fought off four set points to take the third set. Without DeBeer, the Cardinals each stepped up to help the team win.

DeBeer went back on the court and did squats and jumps on the sideline, showing that she was ready if her team needed her. Busboom-Kelly said she still needs to find out more about DeBeer’s injury to know her status for Sunday.

“We’ll see if it’s serious or not, but if there’s any inkling that she can play, she’s the type of kid that’s going to get out there and play,” she said. “We won’t know more until tomorrow.”

How Penn State beat Nebraska

Nebraska lost to Texas in the national championship last year, and that loss motivated the Cornhuskers throughout the tournament. Early in the semi-finals, they appeared to have another shot at a title. Everything worked out for Nebraska, which shared the Big Ten title with Penn State.

But Penn State just wouldn’t go away. Jess Mruzik, a graduate student who has been through Penn State’s ups and downs over the years, remained calm as she led her team. In the third set, the Nittany Lions showed more fight. Camryn Hannah’s ace lit a fire under her team and they held on to stave off Nebraska’s sweep.

Penn State had to play to 28 points to secure the victory in the fourth set. Mruzik and Hannah made the final two kills to push the match to a fifth set. At that point, momentum was clearly on the Nittany Lions’ side.

“I think in those moments it’s a reminder to myself and a reminder to my teammates that we’re going out at Penn State, whether it’s our practice facility in the preseason when it’s 90 degrees or we walking through the snow and coming back at 3:00, we’re running away,” Caroline Jurevicius said with a smile at the postgame press conference. “I looked at every single one of my teammates and gave them a little push and said, ‘We’re doing this. We’re doing it.’ Whether they got sick from me or not, I thought it worked.”

Led by Mruzik with 26 and Jurevicius with 20, Penn State had six more kills than Nebraska. Nebraska had the better defensive game with more blocks and digs than Penn State, but the Nittany Lions still found a way to win. This is Penn State’s first trip back to the national title game since 2014.

In September, Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has continued to exercise while receiving chemotherapy and has been open with her team about how she is feeling throughout treatment.

Her players and assistant coaches have taken to wearing pink accessories — headbands, scrunchies, shoes or headbands — during their tournament runs. They talked about what their coach means to them before Thursday’s game.

“I think sometimes we can get caught up in the moment,” Mruzik said. “We’ve been playing this sport most of our lives, so it can seem like the most important thing in your life sometimes. But the way Coach is able to come in and just be the same every single day, no matter what that’s happening puts so much into perspective for us because this is really just a sport. Obviously we want to win and that’s what we’re here for. But at the end of the day it’s just a game and we don’t need to take this too seriously because sometimes life can outside of sports be more challenging than what you have to do with volleyball.

How to watch the NCAA National Volleyball Championship

Sunday’s game will be broadcast on ABC from 15 ET from the Yum Center, and ESPN+ subscribers can watch the game via the app.