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COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: Rush helps Cards reach Final Four

josh cook, the evening news and the tribune, jeffersonville, ind.
·5 min read

Dec. 13—LOUISVILLE — Ceci Rush and Louisville are heading back to the Final Four.

The 2020 Providence High School graduate and her top-seeded Cardinals rallied for a 25-23, 23-25, 13-25, 27-25, 15-6 victory over Oregon in the Louisville Regional final Saturday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

The No. 4 Cards (30-2) will face sixth-ranked Pittsburgh (31-3) at 9:30 p.m. Thursday night in a national semifinal at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb. Top-ranked Texas (26-1) will take on No. 3 San Diego (31-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday evening in the first semi. The winners will meet in the national championship match at 8 p.m. Saturday night.

Rush, a junior defensive specialist, finished with only one dig Saturday night, however her serving was invaluable — especially in the decisive fifth set — in helping Louisville earn its second straight trip to the Final Four.

"First of all, Oregon is a hell of a team, and they played so well," said Cardinals head coach Dani Busboom Kelly, whose team lost 3-2 to eventual champion Wisconsin in last year's national semifinals. "We knew that we were going to have a hard time stopping them, and we did, so hats off to them. They played a great match, but I'm so proud of this team. We talk about our culture and our grit and that we can out-team anybody, and I thought that's what it came down to in game five. We just out-teamed them, and it took some people that haven't played big roles in a long time. That's what we're about — you have to trust everybody on our team to make big plays — and you saw Ayden Bartlett and Ceci Rush come off the bench and have the biggest runs of the match. That's just a really good feeling and really cool to see those players step up."

In the first-ever matchup between the Cardinals and the Ducks, Oregon opened up early advantages of 10-6 and 14-9 in the first set before Louisville rallied to tie it up at 20. Then with the score tied at 22, Rush served two straight points to give the Cards the lead. Louisville closed out the set a short time later for a two-point triumph.

In the second set, the Cardinals flew out to a quick 7-2 lead. The Ducks responded, though, with an 8-3 surge to knot it up at 10. It was back-and-forth from there until Kiari Robey's kill gave Oregon a two-point win of its own.

The Ducks then dominated the third set. They scored the first eight points and 10 of the first 11 to open up a comfortable cushion. The Cards cut it to 19-12 late, but Oregon answered with four in a row en route to the 12-point triumph.

The seesaw fourth set featured 15 ties before a late kill by Claire Chaussee gave Louisville a 26-25 lead. Moments later, off a Rush serve, an attack error by Oregon set up a winner-take-all fifth frame.

With the score tied at 3 early in the fifth, Rush stepped behind the service line. What followed were four consecutive points — thanks to kills by Amaya Tillman and Anna DeBeer as well as two Oregon attack errors — to give Louisville a 7-3 lead.

The Ducks cut it to 7-5 before the Cards tallied six straight behind the serving of junior Ayden Bartlett.

"I just think that we needed to find a way to settle in and get back to playing Louisville volleyball," said DeBeer, a 6-foot outside hitter from Louisville Assumption who was named the regional's Most Valuable Player. "They were pushing us in ways that we haven't been pushed in a while, and I think it took every single person on the team to come out and just do their job and get back in our rhythm. To finish out that fourth set after being down 24-23 and just to have that trust in everyone and trust in each other was what brought us out on top for that fourth set. Like I said earlier, we weren't going to lose that fifth set after that fourth set. These seniors have worked so hard, and we knew we weren't going to be done. It was a complete team effort."

DeBeer finished with a double-double (a team-high 17 kills and 10 digs) to lead the way for Louisville. Chaussee added 13 kills and Aiko Jones 12 for the Cards, who received 45 assists from Raquel Lazaro. Elena Scott topped the team in digs (15) and service aces (five) while Tillman tallied two solo blocks and five block assists.

The national semifinal will be the third meeting of the season between the Cards and the Panthers, who are Atlantic Coast Conference rivals.

Pitt won the first match in five sets (25-15, 25-13, 25-27, 20-25, 15-12) on its home court on Oct. 23.

Louisville won the rematch, though, with a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-21, 25-18) of the Panthers at the L&N Credit Union Arena on Nov. 18.

NCAA TOURNAMENT

LOUISVILLE REGIONAL

At the KFC Yum! Center

Saturday's final

LOUISVILLE 3, OREGON 2

Oregon 23 25 25 25 6

Louisville 25 23 13 27 15

LOUISVILLE STATISTICS

Kills: Anna DeBeer 17, Claire Chaussee 13, Aiko Jones 12, Amaya Tillman 8, Phekran Kong 5, Raquel Lazaro 1.

Assists: Lazaro 45, Chaussee 2, DeBeer 1, Elena Scott 1, Alexa Hendricks 1, Ayden Bartlett 1, Elle Glock 1.{

Aces: Scott 5, Jones 2.

Blocks: Tillman 7, DeBeer 3, Lazaro 3, Jones 2, Chaussee 1, Kong 1.

Digs: Scott 15, DeBeer 10, Chaussee 9, Jones 5, Lazaro 4, Bartlett 3, Hendricks 3, Tillman 2, Kong, Cara Cresse 1, Ceci Rush 1.