LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville and Penn State are set to play for the national championship in women’s volleyball after they secured victories Thursday in the national semifinals before an NCAA postseason record crowd of 21,726.
The championship matchup, set for 3 p.m. ET Sunday at the KFC Yum! Center with televised coverage on ABC, will produce the first female head coach to win a title in the sport as the Cardinals’ Dani Busboom Kelly meets the Nittany Lions’ Katie Schumacher Cawley.
On Thursday night, Louisville (30-5) upset Pittsburgh, top-ranked since September, 21-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-17. And Penn State (34-2) completed a dramatic reverse sweep against Nebraska, 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13.
The Nittany Lions (34-2) fought off two match points in the fourth set, coming back from five points down late in that set to force a decisive fifth. They denied Nebraska a fifth trip to the championship match in the past eight seasons.
For the Cardinals, the match turned after a third-set comeback from three late, four-point deficits. They fought off four set points, getting three kills from three-time All-American Anna DeBeer and a putaway by Charitie Luper before a double block of Valeria Vazquez Gomez ended the struggle.
DeBeer, a senior outside hitter, went down with a…
