Volleyball Heads to Boston College and Syracuse for Regular Season Finale

After the Cardinals maintained a share of the ACC lead with a pair of wins over NC State and North Carolina, UofL (22-6, 16-2) hits the road for the final two regular season matches of the season.

The Wednesday match at Boston College will be at 7:30 and the Friday match at Syracuse will be at 1 p.m.

The Cards are coming off a pair of exciting wins last weekend. Propelled by a thrilling second-set comeback, the Louisville volleyball team notched a critical ACC victory Friday evening, downing NC State, 25-19, 25-22, 25-15, at Cardinal Arena. The win pushed Louisville into a tie for first place in the ACC standings with Pitt with the Cards having the tiebreaker advantage over the Panthers.

Sophomore outside hitter Melanie McHenry powered the Cards on both ends, racking up 13 kills and five blocks. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Amanda Green racked up eight kills for the evening, while senior middle blocker Maggie DeJong also turned in five blocks.The Cards hit .280 as a team with three aces and 49 digs. Wilma Rivera had 34 assists and nine digs. Molly Sauer had 14 digs with Maggie DeJong adding seven kills and six blocks. NC State hit .110 with three blocks and two aces.

In Sunday's match, Melanie McHenry had a career-high 30 kills and two blocks to lead UofL to a 3-2 win over North Carolina. UofL won the first two sets and then had to hold off a hard-charging Carolina team in the fifth set for the 25-21, 25-17, 23-25, 21-25, 15-11 win. The Cards hit .210 with 11 blocks and five aces, registering 70 kills. UNC hit .143 with 50 kills four aces and 14 blocks. UofL's Jasmine Bennett and Tess Clark each had 11 kills, with Bennett adding five blocks. Senior Gabbie Wiley had a match-high, career-high 28 digs. With the win, Louisville remains in a tie for first place in the ACC with Pitt at 22-6 (16-2 ACC), while UNC falls to 14-12 (11-7 ACC). The Cardinals do have head to head advantage over the Panthers going into the final weekend.

Boston College
The Boston College Eagles come into the weekend with a 7-21 overall record and a 4-14 ACC record. The Eagles are coming off a 1-1 weekend where they fell 3-1 to Duke and beat Wake Forest 3-0 to end a 5-game losing streak. The two-headed attacked of sophomore Cat Balido and graduate transfer Lynn Braakhuis who both come into the weekend with 271 kills each. Sophomore Jill Stockis leads Boston College on the defensive end with 372 digs.

Syracuse
The Syracuse University Orange come into the weekend with an overall record of 19-12 and a conference record of 11-7. The Orange are coming off two 3-1 victories over Wake Forest and Duke. Syracuse is currently fourth in the ACC in hitting percentage at .240. This is mostly attributed to junior Anastasiya Gorelina who brings in 302 kills and a 2.99 kills per set average. Senior Belle Sand leads the Orange defensively with 439 digs, which is good enough for second in the ACC. Syracuse host Notre Dame on Wednesday before playing Louisville.

Series Record vs. BC and Syracuse
Louisville leads the series with Syracuse 21-2
Louisville leads the series with BC 4-1.

McHenry Named ACC Player of the Week
Melanie McHenry, the first Cardinal to record 30 kills in a match since 2011 (Lola Arslanbekova vs. Illinois 9/17/11) led UofL to a pair of wins including knocking off fellow first place team NC State in three and getting five kills in the fifth set to help the Cards finish off UNC, the first win for the Cards over the Tar Heels since joining the league in 2014. Hitting better than .300 for the weekend from the outside against two ACC powers and the league's best blocking team (UNC in ACC matches). In all, she was responsible for 49 points that weekend.

Twenty Win Seasons
This is the Cardinals' 28th 20+ win season. UofL has had five 30-win seasons. The 1982 season mark of 39-14 is the school record.

Tess Clark hits the 1000 kills mark
Senior OH Tess Clark hit the 1000 career kill mark during the FSU game. She is the 18th player to joing the 1000 Kill Club. The last being Janelle Jenkins last season when she hit the 1152 mark.

Cardinal Middle Hitters Lethal in ACC
Middle blockers Maggie DeJong and Jasmine Bennett are formidable at the net for the Cards in ACC play. Bennett is hitting .364 and has 65 blocks (.94 per set.) Maggie DeJong is hitting .374 with 76 blocks (1.08 per set).

Streaking
The Cards have won 15 of their last 16 matches and nine in a row.

Home Sweet Home
The Cards were 10-0 in the ACC at home in newly refurbished Cardinal Arena this season. UofL is the only undefeated team at home this season.

Volleyball Heads to Boston College and Syracuse for Regular Season Finale

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Players Mentioned

Jasmine Bennett

Tess Clark

Maggie DeJong

Amanda Green

Melanie McHenry

Wilma Rivera

Molly Sauer

Gabbie Wiley

University of Louisville Athletics