On the eve of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship, we have a quick look at that Sunday match including the availability of Louisville star Anna DeBeer,;the AVCA players of the year — all named Olivia — more coaching movement; and more boffo ESPN TV ratings in this edition of Volleyball Today:
Louisville vs. Penn State for the NCAA crown
The NCAA championship match is again at 3 p.m. Sunday on ABC and pits the home team, Louisville of the ACC against Penn State of the Big Ten.
Louisville (30-5), has won five in a row and is coming off its 21-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-17 victory Thursday over ACC rival Pittsburgh.
Penn State (34-2) has won 11 in a row. The Nittany Lions pulled off a 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13 reverse sweep Thursday against Nebraska.
Louisville is back in the title match for the second time in three years. The Cardinals have never won the NCAA title. Penn State is back into the last match for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014. Penn State has won it all seven times, second only to Stanford (9).
We will have more on the match Sunday, but the biggest question is about Louisville senior Anna DeBeer, who left the semifinals early in the fourth set with a leg injury. She did not play again and was at the AVCA lunch to be honored as a second-team All-American, wearing a dress, a sneaker on one foot and her injured one in a boot.
“It’s an ankle injury, so I think it’s kind of day to day,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly said Friday. “We’ll see. We’re going to do everything we can to get her on the court, but we do have a great team behind her. If she can’t go, we have some options.”
Kelly admitted that had the match been Saturday DeBeer was unlikely to play.
“The extra day gives us hope. I think, if we were playing tomorrow, there would be no hope. I think it’s also just much better for our sport when today we have the All-American banquet, we have interviews, we have practice. It’s a busy day. It would feel very rushed and crazy to be playing tomorrow. So I think just for the whole team (the extra day between the semifinals and final) is so much better for our sport.”
DeBeer, the hometown hero and leader of the team, averages 3.37 kills per set, has 30 aces, is a tremendous defensive player who averages 2.41 digs, and comes up big time after time when Louisville needs her.
Freshman Payton…
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