Texas hammers Louisville for NCAA volleyball tournament championship, ending Cards' run

Louisville volleyball dared to make history Saturday night, but after three swift sets the status quo remained intact.

The Cardinals were denied their first national championship in program history after falling to Texas 3-0 (set scores: 25-22, 25-14, 26-24) in the NCAA Volleyball National Championship match at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

The win gave the Longhorns (28-1, 15-1 Big 12) their third national title in nine championship appearances and kept Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly — a Nebraska native coaching in the same arena she has won two titles as a player and assistant coach with the Cornhuskers — from becoming the first female coach to win a national championship.

The last female coach to lead a team to the championship was Mary Wise with Florida in 2017.

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"I told them in the locker room, there are so many words to say, it's hard to know what to say first," Busboom Kelly said. "I'm disappointed in the way we played, but so proud of the body of work this season."

Texas avenged its loss in the championship two years ago — against Kentucky and Madi Skinner, who is now a Longhorn — by torching the Cardinals’ offensively. Led by the best player in the country, the Longhorns were locked in on the attack early Saturday night and dominated a defense that blocked Pitt into submission two nights ago; U of L had just four total team blocks Saturday.

National Player of the Year Logan Eggleston proved why she is the best, smashing 10 kills in the first set alone and finishing with 19 kills (.341 attack percentage on 41 attempts), seven digs and three total blocks (one solo).

"She is an unbelievable player, the national player of the year. She's been a six-rotation starter for five seasons." Louisville's coaches felt like she did not play up to her usual level in the semifinals against San Diego and Busboom Kelly said: "Great players don't tend to have two bad matches in a row. We kind of assumed she was going to play great.

Texas’ dominance this season was well known coming into the match. The No. 1 ranked Longhorns entered on a 13-game win streak and were riding high off a four-set win over San Diego in the national semifinal.

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The Cardinals (31-3, 17-1 ACC) fought hard to make it to the finale. Anna DeBeer and Phekran “PK” Kong elevated their games in the Elite Eight and national semifinal to push Louisville into the championship. Louisville’s resilience overcame Oregon and Pitt, but Texas’ pressure kept the Cardinals on the backfoot.

Texas out-hit Louisville .371 to .189 and finished with nine blocks to the Cardinals’ four. Eggleston, Skinner and Asjia O’neal controlled the net with nine total team blocks and kept the Cardinals offense in check. Only Claire Chaussee reached double-digit kills (12) for U of L, with DeBeer (nine) and Aiko Jones (eight) falling short despite hitting .316 and .304, respectively.

"It's easy to look back with regret a lot of things (in this match), but I couldn't be more proud of this group," DeBeer said. "But there are so many things I wish we could have done Saturday night."

Heading into the third set down 2-0, Louisville looked to swing the momentum back to its sideline. Louisville was up 15-14 before the Cardinals were called for an out-of-rotation violation, allowing the Longhorns to tie the game. Busboom Kelly argued the call before receiving a yellow card caution. Skinner then led Texas on a 5-0 run.

"I've seen it called on the receiving team for leaving early, which can be a big advantage," Busboom Kelly said. "But I've never seen out of rotation called on a serving team in all of my coaching."

Graduate senior Chaussee tried to power the Louisville offense throughout the match. The ACC Player of the Year finished with 12 kills and five digs and kept Louisville afloat throughout a potential comeback in the third set. Louisville trailed Texas 20-16 but went on an 8-2 run to set up a set point. But with their backs to the wall, Eggleston led the Longhorns on a 4-0 run to close out the Cardinals’ season and win their first title in 10 years.

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Coming off the back of a second-straight Final Four appearance, Louisville should return several pieces from its championship run.

Kong and DeBeer will be back for their senior years, sophomore libero Elena Scott was selected as a AVCA Second Team All-American and Busboom Kelly will be loaded for another championship run in her seventh season at the helm.

Follow Courier Journal reporter J.L. Kirven on Twitter @JL_Kirven for more updates on Louisville prep sports.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: NCAA volleyball tournament championship: Texas slams Louisville