Five things to know about Texas, Louisville and the NCAA volleyball championship match

OMAHA, Neb. — And then there were two.

Texas (27-1) and Louisville (31-2) will meet in Saturday's NCAA volleyball tournament championship match at CHI Health Center (7 p.m., ESPN2). Texas is in search of its fourth national championship, its third NCAA ring and its first title since 2012. This would be Louisville's first crown.

Here are five things to know about Saturday night's grand finale:

Longhorns have played Louisville before

Texas and Louisville are hardly rivals, but they have played before. The Longhorns own a 3-1 lead in the all-time series.

Louisville, however, currently owns bragging rights. In 2019, the Cardinals stunned Texas at Gregory Gym in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Three Longhorns from that team — Logan Eggleston, Asjia O’Neal and Molly Phillips — are still on the roster. All-American outside hitter Claire Chaussee is among Louisville's five players left from 2019.

Back in 2019, the Cardinals' 3-2 win was considered an upset. Texas was the second overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Louisville was making its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005. But in the three seasons since, Louisville has gone 78-6 and reached two straight Final Fours.

Louisville chasing history in title game

A Louisville win wouldn’t just be historic for the school. Head coach Dani Busboom Kelly could become the first woman to lead a team to an NCAA volleyball championship.

The NCAA has awarded championships in women’s volleyball since 1981, but the 41 teams that have won all have been guided by men. This year was only the second time that the Final Four featured two teams coached by women.

"Last year, when I think I was the only female here in the Final Four, I was like, I don't want to talk about that. I just want to be known as a coach," Busboom Kelly said this week. "I do think having a child, and the more I've thought about it, I think it does need (us) to talk about; it's like, why are we talking about that in 2022 being the second time it's happened?"

Battle-tested? Check

To reach the finals, Louisville had to survive five-set battles against Oregon and ACC rival Pitt in the past two rounds. Louisville swept through the first three rounds of the tournament, with one of those 3-0 victories ending Baylor’s season. Texas, meanwhile, dropped just three sets over the first five rounds of the tournament. The Longhorns have split their two five-set matches this season.

Block party

Texas is No. 45 nationally in blocks, averaging 2.48 per set. At the end of the regular season, Texas had the 81st-best average among the 334 Division I teams (2.30). The Longhorns have recorded at least a dozen team blocks in each of their last three matches, and the 15 that Texas tallied in the Sweet 16 against Marquette and its 16.5 against Elite Eight opponent Ohio State are the team's two best totals of the season.

Leading the charge at the net has been O'Neal, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker who's averaging 1.6 blocks per set in the tournament. She has the third-best hitting percentage in the nation, but Texas coach Jerritt Elliott most recently praised her defense after an eight-block performance against Ohio State last Saturday. Elliott said it was one of the best defensive performances ever by a Texas middle blocker.

"At the beginning of the season, Jerritt pulled me aside and told me, 'You've been really good offensively, but we need to lock in on your blocking; you need to get better,❜ ❞ O'Neal said. "That's been kind of my kryptonite, but I was an offensive-minded person. And this year I tried to dial into my blocking. I'm a middle blocker; that's my job."

Libero lookout

If the Texas and Louisville offenses can hit past their opposing blocks, life won't get any easier on the back end. Of the three liberos who earned All-American accolades from the AVCA this week, two will be playing Saturday night. Texas senior Zoe Fleck was a first-team pick; Louisville sophomore Elena Scott earned second-team honors.

Fleck is the first Texas libero to receive AVCA All-American recognition. She's averaging 4.41 digs per set. Fleck was a third-team All-American while playing at UCLA last year.

Scott is a Louisville native. She's averaging 3.97 digs per set.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas, Louisville set to battle for NCAA volleyball championship