Five Big Questions for NCAA Volleyball’s Championship Match

The date will be Sunday in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship match when No. 1 seed Penn State and Louisville take the court at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.

No woman has won an NCAA title as a head coach since the tournament’s inception in 1981. That will change, as either Louisville’s Danny Busbom-Kelly or Penn State’s Katie Schumacher-Cowley will get the championship.

For Penn State, it would be an eighth title, moving the Nittany Lions closer to Stanford’s record of nine. For Louisville and the ACC, this would be a first.

Many eyes will be on who is taking the court at KFC Louisville! Center: Will Louisville fifth-year senior Anna DeBeer play? The outside hitter injured his ankle near the start of the fourth set Thursday in a 3-1 semifinal win over Pittsburgh.

His absence could have been disastrous for the Cardinals. De Beer is one of the most experienced players in this Final Four and had 14 kills, 35 receptions (with only 2 errors) and 9 digs before leaving the match.

But freshman Payton Petersen stepped in and played very well, and the Cardinals cruised to a victory against the No. 1 overall seed, the Panthers. DeBeer leads the Cardinals in tackles per set (3.37) this season. Busboom Kelly said Louisville will “do everything we can to get him on the court, but we have a great team behind him.”

Schumacher-Cawley said Penn State will prepare how DeBeer will play: “Being a senior and being here at Louisville, I think if she has the ability to compete, she will. ”

Louisville also made an appearance in the 2022 NCAA Finals, falling to Texas. It’s Penn State’s first final since winning its seventh title in 2014, and Nittany Lions players say they believe they’re putting the program back where it belongs.

A lot will be at stake on Sunday, so here’s what to watch for in the final.

Will De Beers play?

With Louisville up two sets to one and leading 2-0 in the fourth against Pitt on Thursday, DeBeer slid into the middle of the court to make a block with teammate Fikran Kang. He jumped alongside Kang, his hands outstretched. She came down with Kong, but De Beer’s right foot landed on Kong’s left heel. Her ankle turned towards him.

The referees immediately stopped play, and de Beer lay on the court for a minute, before being helped to the sidelines, and then off the court. Without him, Louisville stepped on the gas. The Cardinals led 9-5 when they returned to the bench.

She told Busboom Kelly that she wanted to get back into the game. But when he tried to jump, he got hurt.

Louisville never relinquished the lead, thanks to DeBeer’s help, and held on for a 22-17 victory to advance to Sunday’s title game. After the final point, DeBeer stormed down the court to celebrate, but was left out of the Cardinals’ dog pile.

DeBeer attended Louisville’s practice Friday — using a mobility scooter. He did not participate.

If she can’t go Sunday, the graduate student and Louisville native will be hard to replace. There aren’t many on the planet with his combination of talent and experience — he has 277 career hits in NCAA Tournament games alone.

“It’s an ankle injury, so I think it’s kind of day-to-day,” Busboom-Kelly said Friday. “Extra day [between the semifinals and final, which used to be Saturday night] gives us hope. I think if we were playing [Saturday] There will be no hope.”

How much date will the amount be?

Those who don’t follow volleyball will be stunned to hear that a woman has never won an NCAA title as a head coach before. One reason for this is that male coaches are especially prevalent at prominent Division I programs. The most prestigious and highest-paying jobs in college volleyball are on the women’s side, with 344 Division I teams, compared to less than 30 on the men’s side.

SMU head coach Sam Erger says women were overlooked for coaching positions for a long time because historically men were winning championships, and that created a cycle.

“I don’t quite understand, ‘We can’t find anyone qualified [female coach],'” he said. “I think that’s bullshit.”

Female head coaches are leading the way, and Busboom-Kelly and Schumacher-Cawley are prime examples. Both won national championships as players, and Busboom Kelly also won as an assistant coach with his alma mater, Nebraska.

“[I’m] We’re really proud that we can be role models and hopefully we can blaze a new trail and show ADs that women can do it,” Busboom Kelly said. “We can be moms, and we can. Can become a high-level coach.

“I think it would be great for the sport to get that monkey off her back and move on, where it’s not a historic thing that a woman wins, it’s just a routine. That’s great. There will be every Final Four for a woman to win it.”

“Katie is paving the way for us,” Penn State middle blocker Taylor Trammell said. “If we’re going to go into coaching, it shows that there’s a pipeline and a path that we can be, like her, successful.” Can walk to be. Little girls out there — ‘Hey, I want to be a big DI coach’ — they can do it.”

Another possible date is that Louisville could become the first ACC team to win an NCAA volleyball title. ACC newcomer Stanford’s nine titles, of course, came before it joined the league. Busbom-Kelly, who took over at Louisville in 2017, also credits Pitt, a four-time Final Four participant, as a big part of the ACC’s rise.

“Eight years ago, it felt like I was fighting a constant battle of, ‘OK, I want to play in the Big Ten. I’m going to go to this school just because they’re in the Big Ten,'” she said. said “Now we don’t hear it anymore, which is great.”

How much electricity will there be in Louisville?

It’s playing out like the last four in Omaha, near Nebraska’s Lincoln campus. When a hometown or home state team is in the Final Four, there’s that extra level of energy. The Cardinals withstood that pressure all season trying to make the finals in their hometown, and they did.

Excitement levels were high for the Final Four with a semi-final record crowd of 21,726 (not counting the four courtside horses to represent each team) and two thrilling matches, the second of which was a five-set tie. ran

“The crowd was rocking, so just getting their fire out was huge,” Louisville’s Kang said.

On Thursday, fans lined up outside the KFC Yum! The center held cameras and signs (“We came all the way from Maine for this,” read one) as the teams made their red carpet entrances. A sea of ​​red (both Louisville and Nebraska fans) surrounded the field. There was a thunderous roar when DeBeer was introduced.

While some Nebraska fans — who travel particularly well — left after the Huskers’ semifinal loss, others stayed until the final to cheer on Busboom Kelly. She is a Nebraska native who won a national championship as a Huskers player in 2006.

Can Louisville slow down Mruzik and Jurevicius?

Jess Mrozic and Caroline Jurevicius did most of the damage in Thursday’s reverse sweep over Nebraska: Mrozic had 26 kills and Jurevicius 20. Louisville’s block, which was effective against Pitt, will try to keep the duo in check a bit more. It won’t be easy.

Murzak, who transferred from Michigan to Penn State before last season, throws the ball so hard and at such high angles that some of the best teams in the country have had trouble slowing him down. Mrozak willed the Nittany Lions past Nebraska while hitting .300. She passed 2,000 career kills in the process.

“That was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen by an outside hitter,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “Finding ways to kill, hitting our block, hitting really fast cross court. We thought we had it, but he did a great job of hitting our toes.”

Jorevicius, a transfer from Nebraska, had two of her biggest games of the season against her former team: Thursday’s semifinal and Nov. 29 in a regular-season win over the Nittany Lions when she had 18 kills.

Jurevicius talked about the determination Penn State had to beat the Huskers after going down 0-2.

“In those moments, it’s a reminder to me and my teammates that we make it outside at Penn State,” he said. “Be that as it may. [that] In the preseason our gym is 90 degrees, or we’re driving through the snow and coming back at 3 in the morning, we knock it out.”

How might things be different from the first time these teams met?

On September 3, Penn State steamrolled Louisville, not only sweeping the Cards but losing by just 47 points. Mrozic and Jurevicius combined for 24 kills. What has changed?

For the Cardinals, an impressive five-set win over Northern Iowa in the second round of the tournament changed their energy. Kang talked about how the win solidified their connection and their development after some “ugly losses” this season. They are playing with more gossip.

“I know they are a much better team than when we first played them in pre-season,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “I think we’re a much better team than we were the first time in the preseason. It’s going to be a battle.”

As for Penn State, the Nittany Lions look more consistent than ever. There’s a belief about them that they can come back from anything — and coming from down 22-16 in the fourth set against a team like Nebraska in the national semifinals can only boost that confidence. Schumacher-Cawley said the Nittany Lions will have to win the serve-pass game and control the ball on their side of the court.