By Morgan Davenport

Louisville falls to the No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions on the road in a three-set sweep.

Downhill fast

While Louisville started out with a good pace, but ended up letting Penn State gain a massive lead. The gameplay we are used to seeing from the Cardinals simply was not there and this was only the start.

Louisville lost the first set 15-25.

As the match progressed into set two, it was easy to see that the Cards were simply just off rhythm.

Both Cara Cresse and Charitie Luper led with kills with eight each. Unfortunately for the Cards, they simply could not keep a lead. The set started off with a nail biting back and forth until it shifted into another major lead for Penn State.

Luper brought the morale up for a short moment, getting three kills in a row.

The set was tied 16-16, but not long after Louisville began racking up attacking errors, causing the Nittany Lions to get their lead back.

The Cardinals lost this set 19-25.

The third set started off positively with a kill by Cresse. It seemed as though they were on their way to pacing Penn State, but then the Nittany Lions took charge. The Cards seemed to always be a point behind. This gave Penn State a lead that the Cards simply could not keep up with.

Louisville was dominated 13-25 in the third, and lost the match 0-3.

A sliver of hope

The consistent kills provided by Cresse during all three sets assisted by Elle Glock was one of the only things keeping the Cards afloat at times when they needed to pick up their pace. Luper assisted by Nayelis Cabello had the same affects on the level of offensive gameplay.

This is definitely an ode to Coach Dani Busboom Kelly’s choice of rotation. If she was still running a 5-1, the Cards would have struggled more as they would not have both of their talented setters able to play throughout the match. The change of pacing with different setters allows the hitters to utilize different plays and hopefully gain a kill versus a block by Penn State.

While this was a disappointing loss, The Cardinals still are an extremely powerful team with what seems like an impressive rest of the season ahead of them.

Louisville is now 2-1 on the season. They face South Dakota on Friday at 3 p.m. for the Northern Kentucky University Tournament.

Photo Courtesy // Megan Smarkusky, Penn State Athletics