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MA ForpelESPN.com
OMAHA, Nebraska — The Texas Longhorns women’s volleyball team is in familiar territory: back in action for the NCAA Championship. Meanwhile, Saturday’s finals opponents, the Louisville Cardinals, will be out for the first time, as will his ACC as a league.
Texas, the number one seed in the tournament, defeated the San Diego Toleros 3-1 on Thursday, followed by the Cardinals’ 3-2 win over conference rivals Pittsburgh Panthers.
It will be the Longhorns’ eighth NCAA title appearance and fourth-most appearances against UCLA. Only Stanford (17), Penn State (10), and Nebraska (10) have played more in the NCAA championships. Texas won his 2012 and he won his NCAA title in 1988 and his last AIAW championship in 1981.
For the last two seasons, the ACC had only one representative from volleyball’s final four before back-to-back appearances by Louisville and Pitt. That was Florida State, which they lost in the national semifinals in 2011. Last year, the Cardinals and Panthers lost in the semifinals.
Not only is this ACC breakthrough historically significant in volleyball, it’s also notable that Louisville coach Dani Basboom Kelly made it to the finals. She is her second female head coach in her match of the NCAA Championship, after Mary Wise of her Gators in 2003 and Florida in 2017.
“Dani has done a lot for this program,” said Louisville outside hitter Anna Devere. “She’s a bad person. She knows what she wants. She makes us work hard. We want to work hard for her.”
DeBeer and teammate Elena Scott combined to record 10 service aces, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Devia was on the service line with the first eight points of the fifth set in a stunning 15-2 loss for the Cardinals after Pitt rallied to win the fourth set.
“We knew that if we could get them out of the system aggressively at the beginning of that set, that would be very helpful for us,” Devia said. It went better than I expected.”
Claire Chaussee led Louisville with 25 kills and went 31-2 this season.
The Cardinals and Longhorns didn’t meet in the regular season.
Since winning their last NCAA title a decade ago, the Longhorns have knocked on our door several times, including losing to Kentucky here in Omaha two seasons ago. But they want to push through that door this year.
Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said of championship preparation, “It’s all about processing emotions.” I’m really impressed with the way they want to fight. They really want to get this. And now they’ve got it. Opportunity.”
Texas’ only loss this season was on October 19 against Iowa State, 3-2. The Longhorns won all of those games, beating the Torreros he 25-16, 25-18, 25-20.
“The first set wasn’t a perfect set,” said Texas opposing hitter Molly Phillips. “It feels great to go out and play perfect volleyball and wipe out a team. , I feel even better.”
Madison Skinner led Texas with 17 kills, Logan Eggleston had 16 and Phillips had 14. Torreros was the No. 2 seed in the region and defeated No. 1 seed Stanford on his court at home to the Cardinals in the Elite 8. San Diego finished the season 31-2.
“What a great season for San Diego volleyball,” said Jennifer Petrie of Torreros, who was named AVCA Division I Coach of the Year on Thursday. “I couldn’t be more proud of these girls….their belief that we deserve to be here.We earned our right to be here and make a statement about it.” It’s a very, very good team, we played against a team that pushed tonight.”
Saturday’s finals will take place on ESPN2 at 8 PM ET. Nebraska With his Cornhuskers out of Omaha, Louisville is closest to being a fan favorite thanks to his Kerry bass boom. A native of Nebraska, she won her NCAA titles as a player (2006) and assistant coach (2015) for the Huskers in Omaha.
Busboom Kelly jokes that given how the Huskers and Longhorns were fierce rivals in the Big 12 conference before Nebraska moved to the Big Ten, there’s another reason her team will be the crowd’s choice in the finals said
Basboom Kelley said, “I’ve seen someone say, ‘Nebraska never forgets us,’ probably on Twitter, so I was hoping they’d be behind us.” I would be really surprised if people were rooting for Texas on Saturday.”
