No. 2 Cardinals Set to Host Virginia and No. 4 Pitt

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 2 University of Louisville volleyball team returns home for a challenging weekend of ACC volleyball, welcoming Virginia on Friday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. before taking on No. 4 Pittsburgh in a Top 5 matchup on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 12 p.m. at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

Louisville vs. Virginia
Louisville and Virginia have met 11 times since 1995, with Louisville holding an 8-3 record over UVA. The last meeting between the two teams came on Oct. 25, 2019, when Louisville collected a 25-18, 25-12, 25-13 sweep. Virginia is 8-10 this season and 1-7 in conference play. The Cavaliers come to Louisville off a 25-19, 25-16, 25-22 loss at Miami. Virginia is led by first year head coach Shannon Wells who spent the last seven years as the associate head coach for the Florida Gators. UVA's offense features four players with 100-plus kills, two of which have recorded more than 150 this season. Brooklyn Borum leads the team with 157 kills and is second in digs with 151 while also recording 13 aces and 35 blocks. Grace Turner is second on the team with 153 kills and has a team high 26 aces with 32 blocks. Mary Shaffer has 148 kills and is second on the team with 57 blocks. Closing out the Cavaliers hitters, Alana Walker has recorded 107 kills, hitting .234 with a team high 105 blocks.

Louisville vs. Pittsburgh
Sunday's match will mark the 29^th meeting between Louisville and Pittsburgh with Louisville holding a 15-13 lead in the series. The last meeting between the two teams came on Oct. 25, 2020 and resulted in a 3-1 win. The Cardinals snapped Pitt's home match winning streak at 37 (dating back to 2017) as their final match in the fall of 2020. The win vaulted UofL into the No. 5 ranking spot at the time. This year, Pittsburgh is off to a 17-1, 7-1 in the ACC start this season and are currently ranked fourth in the nation. Pitt is coming off 3-1 win over Florida State in Tallahassee and will play at Notre Dame on Friday night before making their way to Louisville for Sunday's match. Led by head coach Dan Fish (ninth season), Pittsburgh won three consecutive ACC Championship titles (2017, 2018, 2019) and appeared in the program's first NCAA Elite Eight in 2020. The Panthers offense features three players with 150-plus kills, two of which have more than 200 kills on the each. Chinaza Ndee and Kayla Lund lead the team with 216 kills each. Ndee is hitting .297 with 47 blocks while Lund is hitting .262 with 20 aces and 20 blocks. Leketor Member-Meneh has recorded 159 kills, and is hitting .251 with 15 aces, 26 blocks and 145 digs.

About the Cards
Louisville still sits at No. 2 in the nation after another 2-0 weekend, defeating Virginia Tech 3-0 and Wake Forest 3-1 on the road. The Cardinals own an 18-0 overall record, 8-0 in the ACC. Sunday's match against Pittsburgh will be UofL's fourth match against a top 10 opponent and fifth against a team ranked in the top 20. Louisville's offense features five players with 100-plus kills on the year, two of which have more than 160, led by Anna Debeer who has tallied 163 kills and is hitting .277 with 18 blocks, 12 aces and is second on the team with 132 digs. Anna Stevenson has recorded 160 kills with a .464 hitting percentage, 73 blocks and eight aces. Aiko Jones has 138 kills and is hitting .270 with a team high 28 aces and is second on the team with 76 blocks. Claire Chaussee rounds out the Cardinal's top hitters with 135 kills, four aces and 10 blocks. Amaya Tillman is leading the team with 81 blocks and is hitting .398 with 115 kills. Rounding out Louisville's starters, Tori Dilfer has racked up 635 assists on the year with 26 blocks and 15 aces and Elena Scott leads the team with 220 digs and is second on the team with 18 aces.

Team Rankings
As a team, Louisville is first in the ACC in aces per set (1.69), seventh in the ACC in assists per set (12.22), first in the ACC and fifth in the nation in blocks per set (2.97), first in the ACC and fifth in the nation in hitting percentage (.310), first in the ACC and third in the nation in opponent hitting percentage (.125), fifth in the ACC in team aces (100) and fourth in the ACC in team total blocks (175.0).

Ranking the Cards
Aiko Jones- 1^st in ACC with .47 aces per set; 4^th in ACC with 1.29 blocks per set; 2^nd in ACC with 28 aces; 5^th in ACC with 76 total blocks
Tori Dilfer- 2^nd in ACC with 10.76 assists per set; 4^th in ACC with 635 total assists
Amaya Tillman- 3^rd in ACC, 9^th in NCAA with 1.45 blocks per set; 3^rd in ACC with .398 hitting percentage; 3^rd in ACC with 81 total blocks
Anna Stevenson- 5^th in ACC with 1.28 blocks per set; 1^st in ACC, 7^th in NCAA with .464 hitting percentage; 7^th in ACC with 73 total blocks
Anna DeBeer- 15^th in ACC with 3.20 kills per set
Elena Scott- 10^th in ACC with 220 total digs

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Claire Chaussee

Anna DeBeer

Tori Dilfer

Aiko Jones

Elena Scott

Anna Stevenson

Amaya Tillman

Related Videos