LOUISVILLE, Ky. — August 28, 2023
Senior outside hitter Anna DeBeer had 17 kills and 17 digs to lead the No. 4-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team to a 25-19, 25-14, 25-23 win over No. 21 Washington State Saturday Night in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.
The Cardinals move to 2-0 in the Cardinal Classic with their second sweep of the season. Louisville hit .381 as a team with five blocks and four aces. Transfer Charitie Luper had 10 kills, hitting .429 with six digs and two blocks. Washington State hit .175 as a team with one block and one ace. They were led by Katy Ryan’s 10 kills. Louisville native Karly Basham had a team-high eight digs.
Wright State downed Troy 3-0 in the first match of the evening. The Cardinals will square off with Wright State at 2 p.m. on Sunday and Washington State and Troy will play the opener at 11 a.m.
UofL is back in action next weekend when they travel to Missouri for the Tiger Invitational with Northern Kentucky, South Dakota and host Mizzou Sept. 1-3.
Set by set recap
Set 1
The Cardinals used a 5-0 run in the middle of the first set to go up 16-11 on a service ace by Elena Scott. UofL maintained that five-point spread until the Cougars were able to pull with four at 22-18 on a kill by Katy Ryan. But WSU would score just once more as the Cardinals got to set point on a Cougar miss followed by a DeBeer kill for the 25-19 win. UofL hit .333 in that set and was led by DeBeer’s five kills.
Set 2
In the second set, WSU had no answer for .500 hitting by the Cardinals. UofL opened an eight-point lead at 14-6 on a hitting error by Ryan. Later in the set, freshman Kamden Schrand served four straight points to push the Cardinal lead to 10 at 20-10 and then pushed on for the 25-14 win when DeBeer connected with setter Elle Glock for the set-winning kill. WSU hit just .094 in that set and the Cardinals never trailed.
Set 3
After the break, the Cougars nipped at the Cards’ heels tying the match 13 times with six lead changes. Tied at 17 the teams continued to trade points with WSU taking its last lead at 20-19 when Iman Isanovic connected with her setter, Argentina Ung and sparked a Cardinal timeout. Louisville retook the lead on an unlikely kill from libero Elena Scott, whose overpass landed untouched on the WSU side to go up 21-20. The Cardinals reached match point on a kill by DeBeer but WSU staved off defeat one more time until DeBeer scored the winning point for the 25-23 win. UofL hit .333 in the set which was just enough to keep the warmed up Washington State hitting percentage of .290 at bay.