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MA VoepelESPN.com
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- MA Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s collegiate basketball and other collegiate sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984 and has been with ESPN since 1996.
OMAHA, Neb. — The Texas Longhorns women’s volleyball team is on familiar territory: back in the NCAA championship game. Their final opponents on Saturday, the Louisville Cardinals, meanwhile, are there for the first time, as is the ACC as a league.
Texas, No. 1 overall in the tournament, defeated the San Diego Toreros 3-1 on Thursday, followed by the Cardinals’ 3-2 win over conference rivals the Pittsburgh Panthers.
This will be the Longhorns’ eighth appearance in the NCAA title fight, which ties them with fourth-ranked UCLA. Only Stanford (17), Penn State (10), and Nebraska (10) have played more for the NCAA championship. Texas won NCAA titles in 2012 and 1988, and won the last AIAW championship in 1981.
The ACC had just one representative in the Final Four in volleyball prior to back-to-back appearances by Louisville and Pitt the past two seasons. That was Florida State, which lost in the 2011 national semifinals. Both the Cardinals and Panthers lost in the semifinals last year.
This ACC breakthrough is not only historically notable for volleyball, but also Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly’s performance in the finals. She is only the second head coach in the NCAA championship game, following Mary Wise of the Florida Gators in 2003 and 2017.
“Dani has just done so much for this program,” said Louisville Outsides hitter Anna DeBeer. “She’s badass. She knows what she wants, she makes us work hard, we want to work hard for her.”
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DeBeer and teammate Elena Scott combined for 10 aces, the most by any team in a national semifinal game in the past 10 years, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
DeBeer was at serve for the first eight points of the fifth set in what became a remarkable 15-2 loss for the Cardinals after Pitt rallied to win the fourth set.
“I knew if I could just be aggressive and get her out of the system early in this set, it would help us a lot,” DeBeer said. “I really wanted to hit a nice serve and it ended up being more than I expected.”
Claire Chaussee had 25 kills to lead Louisville, which was 31-2 this season.
The Cardinals and Texas did not meet in the regular season.
The Longhorns have knocked on the door multiple times since their last NCAA title a decade ago, including their most recent loss to Kentucky here in Omaha two seasons ago. But they hope to break through that door this year.
“It’s about managing our emotions,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said of preparing for the championship. “I have great faith in this group in terms of our routines. I was really impressed by their resilience and the way they want to fight. They really want to earn this thing and now they have that chance.”
Texas’ only loss this season came 2-3 at Iowa State on Oct. 19. But it has lost the first set in five games, including Thursday, 28-26. The Longhorns won all of those games, and the bullfighters finished 25-16, 25-18, 25-20.
“The first set wasn’t our perfect set,” said Texas opponent Molly Phillips. “It feels great to go out and play perfect volleyball and sweep a team. But it’s an even better feeling not playing the perfect game, struggling through tough times and beating a team in four sets like that.”
Madisen Skinner led Texas with 17 kills, Logan Eggleston had 16 and Phillips 14. In Thursday’s semifinals, a Texas program in its 14th NCAA Final Four faced a San Diego program in its first. Ranked No. 2 in their region, the toreros defeated Stanford on the Cardinal’s home court in the Elite Eight. San Diego finished the season 31-2.
“What an incredible season for San Diego Volleyball,” said the Toreros’ Jennifer Petrie, who was named AVCA Division I Coach of the Year last Thursday. “I couldn’t be prouder of these girls. … The belief they had that we deserved to be here. We have earned the right to be here and we have made a statement for that. Kudos to Texas who are a very, very good team. One that we pushed tonight and struggled with.”
Saturday’s finals take place at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2. With the Nebraska Cornhuskers not here in Omaha, Louisville is the closest thing to a fan favorite because of Busboom Kelly. A native of Nebraska, she won NCAA titles with the Huskers as a player (2006) and assistant coach (2015), both in Omaha.
Busboom Kelly joked that there was another reason her team would be the viewers’ choice in the Finals, considering the Huskers and Longhorns used to be bitter rivals in the Big 12 conference before Nebraska made the Big Ten changed.
“I saw a quote from someone, probably on Twitter, who said, ‘Nebraska doesn’t forget their own,’ and I was hoping they would have our backs,” said Busboom Kelly. “I’ll be really surprised if any Nebraskans cheer for Texas on Saturday.”