By Derek DeBurger
Louisville’s season ends at the hands of conference rival Pittsburgh Panthers.
Both teams were ready to punch their ticket to Tampa in a rematch of last year’s semifinal matchup.
The first two sets were in firm control of the Cardinals. Louisville took a 12-6 lead to start the first set, and an evenly spread offensive attack gave them the win 25-23. The second set started more competitively, but the Cards were able to hang in with the Panthers and use a late push to win 25-20.
Everything was going Louisville’s way going into the third, but then three straight errors and five straight kills by Pittsburgh resurrected the crowd’s energy. Pitt dominated the set 25-16.
Louisville still held a 2-1 lead; all they needed to do was win one set and they win the match, but doing so required a good start to the fourth set.
Louisville got out to an okay start, and, after an error, Olivia Babcock was set to serve the ball. Babcock had recorded service errors every time she served previously in the game, but every time the serves looked deadly. This time around her serves were just as deadly as they looked — Pitt scored three aces in six tries, and every other time the Cards looked rattled. By this point, the crowd’s energy was fully engaged, clearly becoming a factor. The Cards would remain somewhat competitive but would go on to lose the set 25-19.
Last year in the national semifinals, Louisville’s matchup with Pitt also went down to the fifth. After a dogfight through four sets, Louisville dominated the fifth set winning 15-2. This year felt like the exact opposite was going to happen. Every ounce of momentum was concentrated on the Panthers’ side of the court, helping the Panthers jump out to a 7-1 lead to start. The Cards did what they could, but there was no stopping the inevitable.
Pittsburgh would win the set 15-7 to complete the reverse sweep.
This is a heartbreaker, there’s no other way to put it. It felt like Louisville had done everything right in the first two sets, but then let their foot off the gas just long enough to give Pitt some hope.
As disappointing as this is it was still an excellent season, and the future is bright under head coach Dani Busboom-Kelly.
