By Jocelyn Scurlock

The No. 4 Cardinals fell to their conference rivals the No. 6 Pittsburgh Panthers on Sunday in five sets.

Same old story

The first set started rocky for Louisville with Pitt getting out to an early 6-1 lead. The Cards struggled early to defend the Panthers offense and were forced to call a time out.

After regrouping, Louisville was able to string a few points together fueled by a monster block from Hannah Sherman and Nayelis Cabello.

They were able to keep themselves in the set by getting all of their hitters involved, but the Cards had a really hard time finding an answer for Pitt’s offense which caused them to drop set one 25-20.

Louisville had their foot on the gas to start the second by getting out to a 3-0 lead thanks to scrappy defense and a kill by Payton Peterson. Their momentum continued, forcing the Panthers to call a time out.

The Cards continued to find creative ways to score such as running right side Kalyssa Blackshear out of the middle, which caught Pitt’s blockers off guard enough to give Louisville the point.

They were able to keep up their fast-paced offense throughout the entirety of set two despite Pitt continuing to swing hard. The Cards were able to win 25-19.

Louisville picked up right where they left off to start the third set going on a 4-0 run.

They continued to struggle with defending Pitt’s hard hitters, but they made up for it with strong serve-receive that allowed Cabello to feed her hitters perfect balls to swing off of.

The Cards offense shined in set three with 15 kills overall led by Peterson and Cara Cresse.

Their consistency in the front row gave them the win in set three 25-20.

The fourth set started off pretty back-and-forth with both teams finding success on their swings. But as they got deeper into the set the Panthers offense simply became too much for the Cards.

With Pitt consistently finding the open spots on the court and Louisville having a few too many errors on their side of the net, the Panthers won the set 25-17 to force a fifth.

Set five looked promising for the Cards, starting with an ace by Cabello and a stuff block by Chloe Chicoine and Sherman.

But a string of mistakes and powerful swings from Pitt’s offense forced a time out.

Aggressive serving by Louisville kept them in the game, but ultimately Pitt’s offense was just too powerful and the Cards dropped the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.

Festering

This game was a huge struggle for Louisville’s defense who just couldn’t seem to find an answer for Pitt’s heavy hitters. Although they tried multiple strategies to stop them, they just couldn’t find anything that worked consistently.

Conversely, the Cards’ offense shined in this match with everyone getting involved. Setter Cabello even called her own number a few times and ended the game with nine kills.

It is fun to see the Cards find new and creative ways to score which keeps their opponents on their toes.

Although this rivalry game may not have gone Louisville’s way, they now know what they need to work on when they face Pitt again later in the season.

Louisville is now 14-4 on the season and 6-2 in the ACC after previously being unbeaten in-conference a week ago.

The Cards will be on the road this weekend to take on Duke and North Carolina.

Photo Courtesy / Lillian Camp / Louisville Athletics