Louisville Volleyball Falls to Penn State in the National Championship

This story will be updated.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With KFC Yums! Center, which served as the host site for the 2024 NCAA D1 women’s volleyball Final Four, therein lay the potential for a storybook ending for the Louisville volleyball program — winning their first-ever national title on their home court.

Unfortunately, despite returning for the final game of the season, that storybook ending didn’t materialize.

Facing Penn State in the national championship game, the Cardinals were unable to avenge their regular-season loss to the Nittany Lions, falling just short of a four-set title (23-25, 34-32, 20-25, 16) -25) loss on Sunday.

Top-seeded Louisville is reaching its second national championship game in three years and third Final Four in four years, finishing its 2024 season with a 30-6 overall mark, including 17-3 in ACC regular-season play. Meanwhile, colleague no. 1 seed Penn State on the year at 35-2 and 19-1 in Big Ten play, as well as their eighth title in program history — and first since 2014.

Third-year Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, whose Nittany Lions also swept the Cardinals in University Park, Pa. back on Sept. 3, will become the first female head coach in the 43-year history of the NCAA D1 Women’s Volleyball Tournament to win a title. Eighteen-year Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly narrowly missed out on this honor.

The opening set, like in Louisville’s matchup against Pitt played before, was very back and forth, with 11 ties. However, it was Penn State that held the slight edge throughout most of the set, using their aggression to go on offense whenever it came back to a tie game.

The Cardinals had three separate 3-0 runs, but the Nittany Lions answered each time, stringing together a pair of 4-1 runs and then scoring the final two points thanks to a pair of UofL miscues.

In the second set, Louisville appeared headed for a sweep. While going back and forth to start, Penn State used a 9-3 stretch midway through the set to give itself some serious breathing room and go up 17-10. At the time, the Cardinals seemed a step behind no matter what they were doing.

But while they were down, they certainly weren’t out. Louisville went on a furious comeback, scoring 14 of the next 21 points, including a 5-0 run while the Nittany Lions were on set point to tie it at 24. What followed was a heart-pounding sequence that featured 14 total set points , including 10 for PSU before UofL went on a set-clinching 3-0 run.

Set three had a similarly competitive start, only for Penn State to use their aggression to their advantage. Louisville trailed just 8-7 early, but the Nittany Lions used a decisive 6-2 run to lead the set by as many as six points before eventually putting away the Cardinals and capturing the set. In that frame alone, PSU posted 19 kills while UofL could only muster nine.

In the fourth and final set, Penn State exploded right out of the gates. They opened the set on a 6-1 run to force Louisville to burn an early timeout, and could never get within striking distance after that. The Nittany Lions led by as many as eight points in the set, and the Cardinals could only get within five down the stretch.

(Photo by Sofia Maldonado Diaz: Scott Utterback – USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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