Cardinals Round Out Home Schedule With Notre Dame and Miami

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville volleyball team will top off its home schedule with its final two ACC home matches this weekend as the Cardinals face rematches with the Irish of Notre Dame on Friday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. and the Hurricanes of Miami on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches will be contested at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

The Cards will honor lone senior Melanie McHenry immediately following the Miami match on Sunday.

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This Week in Cardinal Volleyball
The post-Melanie McHenry Cardinals have had to regroup and repurpose to find a new lineup that replaced their lone senior and six-rotation player. Last weekend, the Cards had just one match. Claire Chaussee and Amber Stivrins each had 10 kills to lead the Louisville to a 25-19, 25-15, 25-15 sweep of Syracuse Friday night in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

UofL improved to 17-8 and 10-5 in ACC play. The Cardinals hit .292 with five aces, 41 digs and five blocks. Anna Stevenson had eight kills and two blocks with teammate Aiko Jones adding six kills and three blocks. Tori Dilfer ran the offense, notching 32 assists and a block.

Notre Dame
Last weekend, the Irish beat Syracuse 25-17, 24-26, 25-18, 26-24 over Syracuse inside Purcell Pavilion.

With the win, the Irish improve to 18-7 overall and 11-4 in ACC play. Caroline Meuth led the Irish with 21 kills while Charley Niego racked up 20 kills. Zoe Nunez earned 46 assists in the four sets of play. Madison Cruzado recorded a team-high 18 digs. Nunez added 13 digs and Niego notched 11 digs for her 13th double-double of the season. Kristin Baer paced Notre Dame with six total blocks.

Notre Dame leads the conference with an average of 15.53 digs per set. The Irish have earned 70+ digs in six matches so far in 2019, including a 79-dig effort in a five-set victory over Michigan on September 18th. Junior Madison Cruzado earned a career-high 27 digs in a five-set match vs. Louisville on October 16th. Last Meeting was the fateful day the Cards lost McHenry and have gone 3-5 since. The University of Louisville came back from a 2-0 set deficit to beat Notre Dame 3-2 in South Bend.

The Cardinals won 22-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-22 win, hitting .219 for the match with 14 blocks and four aces. Aiko Jones led the Cardinals with 16 kills, nine digs and an ace. Anna Stevenson had eight kills and nine blocks.

Last Year
The teams split last year in their two meetings. UofL won the Oct. 10 match 3-2 when the two team met at a high school gym after a power outage at Cardinal Arena. The Irish got revenge in when they rallied for a ?ve-set victory on November 16, 2018. Sydney Bent (19 kills) and Charley Niego (17 kills) led ND.

Irish vs. Cards in Championship Play
Louisville and Notre Dame met six times in the Big East Tournament Championship with UofL leading 4-2 in those matchups. UofL won the Big East Crown in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, while the Irish won in 2005 and 2011.

Miami
Like Louisville, Miami had just one match last week. UM is one of the strongest serving teams in the ACC. The Canes currently have the best service percentage in the ACC. Janet Kalaniuvalu ranks 8th in conference, registering .33 aces per set, and leads the Canes with 29. In their lone match, the Hurricanes forced its third straight five-set match on Friday against NC State, but fell short after staving off two match points in the fifth. For the second time this season, both Kennedy Prince and Savannah Vach registered double-doubles in the same match. The duo have each recorded six, totaling 12 of Miami's 13. Vach finished the match tying her career high with 58 assists and 10 digs, while Prince finished with 12 kills and 14 digs. Miami also matched its season high with 12 aces, led by Amanda Falck who tied her career high with three and Priscilla Hernandez who set a career high with three.

Last Matchup
Aiko Jones had a career-high 20 kills, with two aces and five blocks to lead the Cards tp3-2 win over Miami Nov. 8 in Coral Gables. UofL hit .237 with 14 blocks, six aces and had three players in double digit kills. Claire Chaussee had 19 kills and three blocks with Amber Stivrins pitching in 12 kills and two blocks. Tori Dilfer had 57 assists and nine digs. Alexis Hamilton had a match-high 17 digs. The Canes hit .161 with 12 blocks and nine aces. Kennedy Prince led UM with 14 kills and an ace.

McHenry Sidelined for Remainder of 2019 University of Louisville outside hitter Melanie McHenry will be sidelined for the remainder of the season after suffering an injury to her left knee during the match at Notre Dame on Oct. 16, 2019. She had surgery on Nov. 12.

McHenry, a four-year starter, is the leading scorer for the Cardinals with 204 kills, leads the team in aces and adds 31 blocks. She is second on the team in digs with 144. The lone senior on the 2019 roster, the Speedway, Ind. native ranks No. 9 in school history in kills with 1,345 and is 21st on the active career list in Division I players. This season, she was named ACC Player of the Week, the Fleur De Lis Tournament MVP, and was named All-ACC Preseason..

Chaussee/Jones Stepping Up
Claire Chaussee stepped into Melanie McHenry's shoes after the knee injury. In the past eight matches, she has averaged 11.25 kills per match. The prior seven matches before that she averaged four kills per match. Jones has 15 matches in double digits including a career-high 20 kills against Miami.

RPI Run Down
The Cardinals' RPI is 27, the second best in the ACC behind Pitt (5). RPI stands for Ratings Percentage Index and the index comprises a team's winning percentage (25%), its opponents' winning percentage (50%), and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents (25%). The opponents' winning percentage and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents both comprise the strength of schedule (SOS). Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents' winning percentage and 1/3 its opponents' opponents' winning percentages.

ACC Roundup
Pitt clinched the 2019 ACC Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 win at Duke on Saturday. The ACC title is the third straight for the Panthers, and their second outright. Pitt shared the championship with Louisville in 2017 before winning it outright last year. Pitt is ranked No. 2 in the latest AVCA Poll, the highest ranking ever for an ACC team, and is receiving 11 first-place votes. Four ACC teams are in the top 40 of the latest RPI, including No. 5 Pitt, No. 27 Louisville, No. 32 Notre Dame and No. 37 Florida State.

Promotions

Fri	Nov. 22	7:00 p.m.	Notre Dame	Live DJ: DJ KDogg Cardinal Cup
Sun	Nov. 24	1:00 p.m.	Miami	Senior Day Food Drive (Five cans earns you a beanie while supplies last) Giveaway: Adidas Beanie's (While supplies last) Louisville Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day Hike and Spike Match: Show your Syracuse Football Ticket for a $4 Sideline or $6 Terrace Volleyball Ticket (FB vs. Syracuse 4pm. on Nov.23)

University of Louisville Athletics

Cardinals Round Out Home Schedule With Notre Dame and Miami

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Players Mentioned

Claire Chaussee

Tori Dilfer

Alexis Hamilton

Aiko Jones

Melanie McHenry

Anna Stevenson

Amber Stivrins

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