By Derek DeBurger
No. 2-seed Louisville sweeps the Western Michigan Mustangs to advance to the Regional Semifinals.
The Cards were far more ready to play Friday night, and Cara Cresse made her impact on the match felt early. Cresse had three straight kills to put the Cards up 7-3. The Mustangs wouldn’t roll over, coming off of an upset of No. 7 seed Auburn on Thursday. The Mustangs had six aces in the first set alone, the sixth ace giving them a 22-20 lead and a ton of momentum. Head coach Dani Busboom-Kelly’s stoic demeanor was infectious. The players on the court didn’t panic; they strung together points, didn’t get down when the Mustangs would get closer to stealing the set and they closed it out 26-24 off of an ace of their own.
The second set was just an all-around great team performance. Seven different players recorded a kill in the second, and only five of the points scored in the set were off of errors. The Cards brought it to the Mustangs and dominated the second set 25-18.
The height advantage continued into the third set, as Louisville scored twice on early blocks to take a 3-1 lead. The rest of the set was dead even. Almost every score by one team was matched by the other, and both teams even went on their own 7-1 runs; the quick start and unforced error from Western Michigan (nine in the set) was enough for the Cards to clinch 25-22.
The Card sweep 3-0.
Friday’s match is what you would expect from one of the top seeds in the tournament. The Cards were the better team, and they had great showings from both the starters and the bench players. True freshman Reese Robins came off the bench to chip in eight kills on a 0.462 hitting percentage. Elle Glock stuffed the stat sheet with 26 assists and 11 digs. Elena Scott had 22 digs on Friday, one more than she had in the tournament’s first round with one fewer set.
The Cards will play the winner of the Minnesota-Creighton match on Thursday.
