LOUISVILLE — Over aspan of two-and-a-half hours Wednesday night, two of the best collegevolleyball teams in the country played a tightly contested match. Louisville hosted reigning NCAA champion Kentucky, and thesquadsdueled for five sets, playing 203 total points.
A capacity crowd, which was present and boisterous until the end, watched Kentucky win 101 points — and Louisville win 102.
The Cardinals edged the Wildcats 3-2 (17-25, 25-20, 25-22, 20-25, 15-9) for a narrow, thrilling, long-awaited win in the rivalry series. With the victory, Louisville (9-0) stayed undefeated and continued its best start to a season since 2005.
Moments after the final point, the entire Louisville team mobbed one another and then jogged a triumphant lap around the court at the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena in front of a venue-record 1,258 fans. They then ran into the locker room, joyously spraying water all about.
“This team loves to celebrate,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly said.
And the Cardinals have plenty to enjoy. The team is currently ranked higher than ever— No. 5 in the nation — and it just snapped a 7-match losing streak to the Wildcats.
“It’s kind of been on our list, like when are we gonna have a chance to beat Kentucky?” Busboom Kelly said. “And I felt like this year, we have the players to match them player-for-player, so to capitalize on that is huge.”
Louisville hadn’t defeatedKentucky since 2012, andthe Cardinals hadn’t even managed to takea set against their rival in six years. UK entered the match having won 15-straight sets against U of L, and that streak continued in Wednesday’s opener, as the Wildcats sprinted to a lead in the first set, winning comfortably.
UK was overpowering, and 6-foot-2 outside hitter Madi Skinner led the way with 7 kills, eventually finishing with 16.
“The first set felt like past times playing Kentucky,” Louisville middle blocker Anna Stevenson said, “just overwhelming because they’re so physical and fast.”
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The Wildcats have lost key players from last season’s NCAA-winning team, including All-Americans Madison Lilley (setter), Avery Skinner (outside hitter), and Gabby Curry (libero), but they’re still a talented team, and they proved it in that first set.
Then, the Cardinals proved themselves.
Louisville led for the bulk of the second and third sets, winning each, before UK came back to win the fourth set. It all came down to the fifth set, and that’s when U of L — a terrific blocking team — took control.
Tied at 9-9, Louisville won four of the next six points on blocks, ending the game on a 6-0 run and snapping their losing streak in the Battle of the Bluegrass in front of an ardent crowd.
“That was so much fun,” Stevenson, who contributed 12 kills with a .333 hitting percentage, said of the energetic environment. “I don’t think we’ve played in a game like that since 2019. That was just awesome.”
Senior outside hitter Claire Chaussee led Louisville with 18 kills on a .282 hitting percentage, and sophom*ore Anna DeBeer, a three-time KHSAA champion with Assumption, added 14 kills, too.
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Both teams started freshmen liberos who were teammates at Mercy Academy last year, with Eleanor Beavin leading UK in digs (17) and Elena Scott diving around as Louisville’s most active defender, registering 18 digs.
U of L’s blocking was maybe its greatest strength, though, and it notched twice as many blocks as UK (20 to 10). 6-foot-3 junior middle blocker Amaya Tillman — who ranks 4th in the nation in blocks per set — paced the team with nine total.
“It’s big-time,” Tillman said of the win. “I think we rose to the occasion.”
UK (6-3) has now lost to two top-five teams this year in Wisconsin and Louisville, and will next host No. 16 Stanford, the school with the most NCAA titles in history, on Sunday.
“Offensively, we were really good at times and then struggled at times to put the ball away,” said UK coach Craig Skinner. “I think too many hitting errors to really have a chance to win it in the fifth.”
Louisville, which defeated then-No. 6 Purdue last week, has another challenging test ahead of it, too. It will face its third top-10 team in a span of nine days when it plays on Saturday at Nebraska, a storied program and Busboom Kelly’s alma mater.
Busboom Kelly, now in her fifth year as the Cardinals’ coach, said she’s known this Louisville team can be great, and she has high hopes for the season.
“To see us go up-and-down, but finish strong, that’s something that we’re gonna take going into the rest of the season,” she said. “This will not be the toughest match we have to accomplish our goals.”
Hayes Gardner can be reached athgardner@gannett.com;Twitter: @HayesGardner.
