Louisville’s Raquel Lazaro celebrates winning a point during her team’s NCAA semifinal victory. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Louisville volleyball outlasted Pittsburgh in Thursday’s semifinals in Omaha to reach its first national championship match.
The rivals traded sets through a back-and-forth contest, but the Cardinals finally grasped control with a 15-2 win in the final set. They will face No. 1 overall seed Texas at 8 p.m. ET Saturday for the NCAA title.
The national championship will air on ESPN2 and stream on ESPN+.
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#GoCards x #NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/OYefsFv9bc
— Louisville Volleyball (@LouisvilleVB) December 16, 2022
If the Cardinals can beat the Longhorns, they’ll make history in a number of ways.
No Louisville women’s team has won a national championship in any sport. No ACC team has won a national championship in volleyball. And no woman has coached a volleyball team to a title.
Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly could become the first woman to do so after leading the Cardinals to a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh in the semifinals. Claire Chaussee led the team with 25 kills, and Anna DeBeer (15) and Aiko Jones (12) also reached double figures.
“Dani has just done so much for this program,” DeBeer said. “She’s a badass. She knows what…
