Louisville sweeps Pitt; GT slips past FSU; 40 kills for Evansville’s Cardona

Even on a night when an NCAA Division-I player racked up a rare-as-hen’s-teeth 40 kills, a statement-making victory in a match played between top-10 teams before 11,461 fans on national television justifiably hogged the spotlight.

With hometown hero Anna DeBeer leading the charge, VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll No. 8 Louisville — runner-up in the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and a Final Four team in 2021 – took out No. 7 Pittsburgh — a 2022 NCAA semifinalist — in the minimum three sets at the downtown Yum Center before the second-largest crowd in program history and an ESPNU TV audience.

Elsewhere on a newsworthy Friday night in NCAA women’s volleyball across the country, Georgia Tech kept pace in the Atlantic Coast Coast Conference after dodging a five-set threat against Florida State.

Also, Wisconsin (ranked No. 1 in the VBM Poll) and No. 2 Nebraska rolled on in the Big Ten, No. 11 Florida continued to upstream in the SEC, No. 3 Stanford had a surprisingly easy time with USC in the Pac-12, The Citadel kept its undefeated season intact (just barely) and Dayton pushed its winning streak to 14.

In the stat line of the night, Evansville’s Giuliana Cardona recorded the first 40-kill match in a whole bunch of years as the Purple Aces (8-11, 3-5 Missouri Valley Conference) won a five-setter with a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 36-34 fifth set (yes, you read that right) over visiting Illinois-Chicago (13-8, 4-4). Her 40 kills tied the single-match Valley record set in 1989 during the sideout era, 12 years before the NCAA instituted rally scoring. Cardona needed 94 swings to get 40 kills and she had 20 attack errors for a .213 hitting percentage, while adding 16 digs. The match went 3 hours, 44 minutes.

In the “sort of close but no cigar” stats-line category, Natalie Stepanovich pounded 24 kills, dug 22 balls, ripped an ace and recorded three blocks as Robert Morris (5-15, 2-7 Horizon League) prevailed in a pulsating five-setter (15-12 in the tiebreaker) against visiting Youngstown State (7-13, 2-7). That would be excellent on a typical night, but a non-starter against 40 kills.

The stats bronze medalist was Rice’s Emila Weske, who had 27 kills, two aces, 18 digs and four blocks (one solo) as the Owls (13-5, 7-1) suffered their first American Athletic Conference loss in a five-setter against visiting Florida Atlantic (12-9, 4-4).

The…