Cardinal Fall in NCAA Championship Match

Saturday, December 17

OMAHA, Neb.

8 p.m.

University of Louisville

31-3,17-1ACC

Texas

28-1,14-1Big 12

Louisville

Texas

Aiko Jones thanks the crowd after the National Championship match

December 17, 2022 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Jones, DeBeer and Chaussee voted All-Tournament

By: Nancy Worley and Cortney VanLiew

OMAHA, Neb. – Claire Chaussee, Anna DeBeer, and Aiko Jones were named to the All-Tournament team as the University of Louisville volleyball program fell to the Texas Longhorns 25-22, 25-14, 26-24 in the NCAA National Championship ,match on Saturday night at the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, Nebraska.

Louisville had 36 kills, four aces, 39 digs, and four blocks. Chaussee finished with 12 kills to end with 82 through the NCAA Tournament. The AVCA First Team All-American added five digs. Raquel Lazaro led the team with 14 digs and had 28 assists and one ace. DeBeer had nine kills hitting .316 and eight digs, ending the tournament run with 61 kills and 52 digs. Jones notched eight kills hitting .304, two digs, and two blocks. Elena Scott recorded one ace and six digs. The libero finished the tournament with 14 aces and 95 digs. Amaya Tillman had four kills and two blocks, improving to 36 kills and 25 blocks in the tournament run.

The Longhorns were led by Logan Eggleston who finished with 19 kills hitting .341, seven digs, and three blocks. Madisen Skinner added 12 kills hitting .407, one ace, and three blocks. Eggleston, Skinner, Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres, and Asjia O'Neal were named to the All-Tournament team with Eggleston being named the MVP.

Set by Set Recap
SET 1
Powered by aggressive serving by Anna DeBeer, the Cardinals hopped out to a 3-0 lead but the Longhorns answered with four straight to go up 4-3. Texas took a two point lead at 8-6 on an ace by Zoe Fleck. The Cards tied at nine on a Madisen Skinner hitting error. Texas managed to spread the lead to three and were up 15-13 at the media timeout. A 3-0 Cardinal run that included two consecutive kills by Chaussee closed the gap to one at 18-17. Texas had a 3-1 run that started with a line shot for a kill by Logan Eggleston to take the Longhorns up 21-18 and spark a Louisville timeout. After the Cards scored on a kill by Jones, Eggleston threaded a ball through the Cardinal block to take Texas up 22-19. After a Louisville timeout at 22-19, the Cards scored on a net call and a kill by Tillman before the Longhorns got to set point on a service error by Chaussee. An Eggleston kill ended the set at 25-22. UT hit .533 in the first set to Louisville's 400. The Cards had two aces and the Longhorns survived five service errors.

SET 2
Texas held momentum early in the second set, going up 3-0 with an ace by Fleck setting the tone. The Cards tied at three with a block by Kong and Jones. Texas spread the lead to five on two straight hitting errors by the Cardinals before Busboom Kelly called timeout down 11-6. The break did not sway the momentum as Texas went on a 4-1 run to go up 15-7 and force Busboom Kelly to burn her final timeout of the set. But the Cardinals got help from Chaussee on the attack and blocking by Tillman and Jones to run off four straight to move the score to 15-11 and force a UT timeout. UT kept a grip on the lead with a 5-2 down the stretch before a hitting error put the set out of hand 25-14 and give the Longhorns a two-set lead going into the break.

SET 3
After the two teams traded points, the Cardinals took the lead at 7-6 when the Longhorns were called out of rotation. Two straight kills by Anna DeBeer from the left side and a block by Jones and Kong put the Cards up 11-10. After exchanging points, a dump by Raquel Lazaro and a kill by Anna DeBeer gave UofL a 15-14 lead going into the media timeout. Texas ran off a 6-1 sequence to go up 20-16. A kill by Jones and an ace by Lazaro brought the Cards within two at 20-18 forcing a UT timeout. Louisville tied at 21 on a block by Kong. Kills by Chaussee and Anna DeBeer pushed the Cards to set point 24-22 before Texas called timeout. Texas got a kill from Asjia O'Neal and a miss by Chaussee to tie at 24. A net call and a Longhorn ace gave Texas the win 26-24.

WHAT THEY SAID
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: I told the team in the locker room, it's hard -- there's so many words to say about this match and this season -- it's hard to know what to say first, especially when you feel disappointed in the way you played, but you feel, like, so incredibly proud of the body of work that this team did this season.
Texas is great. They pass great. They defended great. We really couldn't do anything to stop them. And it felt like anytime we felt like we got a little momentum, they took it away so quickly.
But I'm really proud of this team. Our senior class is unbelievable what they accomplished. And it's tough. It's tough being in this moment and not taking advantage of it. But, again, just really proud of this team and especially our seniors.

Q. Dani, just the emotions of tonight with everything that happened, the set-point opportunity, what did it feel like after Anna got that kill and could have send it to four there?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: It felt like if we could get to game four we had a great chance to win. We couldn't quite get to game four. I kept thinking, man, if we can win this set, I felt like we could win the match.It's, again, very disappointing when you have a swing to win the set. But it was pretty amazing to be in that position and something we're definitely going to learn from in the future.

Q. How good was Logan Eggleston tonight, especially in the first set?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: She was unbelievable. She was player of the year. She's been a starter, six rotation starter for Texas for five years. So I'm not shocked. I had said it before, great players typically don't have two bad matches in a row. She didn't play great on Thursday. So we knew she would be ready.
It wasn't about her playing well; it was more like what can we do on our side to match that because we kind of assumed she was going to play great.

Q. Anna and Aiko, what do you wish you came away doing better? Seemed like points in the match seemed to go away sometimes just randomly, as you look back?
ANNA DEBEER: I think it's easy to look back and regret a lot of things. But when you look at the whole scheme of things and realize what this team has accomplished this whole year, I couldn't be more proud of this group.
And you go in and we said that we wish we had more time. We wish we could make adjustments a little bit quicker. And there's so many things we wish we could have done.
We know we didn't play our best. But I'm proud of the way we fought and I'm proud of the way we came back in that third set and really didn't give up. And that's what this team has done all year. It was a lot of things that I regret but you can't look at those things. You've just got to look at the whole year and how we got here. And I couldn't be more proud of this team.

Q. Coach, is it hard to go ahead and put it in perspective how great a run this season was just right after a match like this?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: Yeah, it's definitely hard. Like I said, these opportunities are incredibly hard to get. And when you don't take advantage of them, it's really disappointing.
But we're going to look back on this season and be thankful for so many things and be really proud. And we've changed the program. We've changed a city. We've changed fans. It's been really incredible what we've done.
Like I said, the senior class, insanely incredible what they've done. The last four, some of them five years, I think we've almost done something new in the program every single year they've been here.
But it's hard. It's hard, especially when you feel like you could have done more and could have given a little more of a battle.

Q. Dani, a bit of an inside baseball question. Have you ever been part of a match where there were two rotation errors? And did you get an explanation on yours?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: I've been in matches where there's been out of rotations called on the serve receiving team. That happens frequently where players leave early. That's a huge advantage. I've never seen an out of rotation called on the serving team in all of my coaching.

Q. You talked about just what you've done and the players have done for Louisville, but also what programs like Louisville have done for volleyball. I know you've talked about it this whole weekend. But looking at how much growth there has been with the program such as yourself, can you put that into perspective?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: I think it's a long answer to a great question, because we focus a lot on our university and our city because we're in it, and it's amazing what we're doing. But we talk about Claire, Chaussee and Anna DeBeer being, quote/unquote, undersized and what they can accomplish on this stage. And they got us here.
And we talk about Aiko, who didn't play club volleyball, who grew up in Jamaica. She might be fifth-year but she didn't play thousands of games like Logan Eggleston. She got here and played her first game -- and what she can do on this stage.
PK is from South Dakota. Started club, like, her junior year, practically.
And it's just amazing what these guys can accomplish. And I think it gives hope to athletes everywhere that you don't have to have this storybook career to make it here and to perform well.
And our team is just unbelievable role models. And they're all so different. I asked Cara Cresse what makes our team so special. She said, our team has so many different ideas about the world and life and religion and politics, but we respect each other so much. On top of that, they want to learn why.
And I hope that bleeds into other teams and to young women.
Again, I think that's a long answer to a great question. And I'm proud of the ACC and the parity in our sport. I think it's going to continue to get tougher and tougher to be in this moment. I think this was the first year, like, the Elite Eight games were unbelievable. They were almost all five-setters. So, again, parity is going to continue to get tougher.

Q. I would normally just not ask this question but it's not every day that a volleyball coach wears an adidas jacket made by Gucci. Could you tell us about that?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: Goes back to last year with Anna Stevenson being obsessed with what I'm wearing for whatever reason. It's kind of been a thing. Adidas came here and surprised me with this jacket. And they gave it to me on Thursday and said I'm feeling really good that you're going to win; can you wear it on Saturday? So here I am.
It's a little tight. Not super comfortable, but I was pretty surprised. It was pretty cool.

Q. I talked to a dad today of one of the fans before this, and he was here, but takes his daughters to your games so they can watch your players interact, whether they win, lose, win points, lose points. To hear stuff like that, that's kind of where a lot of parents are with your program, wanting to just gravitate their kids to it.
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: It means a ton. It's what we set out to do every day is inspire other people. These guys do it. Not me. So I don't know. I would let them answer the question.
AIKO JONES: That means a lot. I think this program and the foundation of what this program has become has been our culture. And that is something that this senior class especially has worked really hard to establish and to maintain. And I think to hear that people in the stands can see that and appreciate that for what it is means a lot.
And it shows that what we are doing on and off the court doesn't only affect us but affects those around us. Like Dani said, that's what we set out to do as a program. But it's nice to hear that outsiders hear that as well and appreciate it.

Q. We've talked all week about hometown, home state support for you and the girls. What has that meant to you this week, today, and moving forward?
COACH BUSBOOM KELLY: It's been really special for me personally, obviously, and to know that so many people are behind us. And it just means a lot to know that no matter where I'm at there's great support. And the "go big red" is not our chant, but we got the drift that we were wearing red jerseys and that the crowd really -- I think win or lose -- they just wanted to see more volleyball.
And that's how I felt too. It was like, man, I want to see what we can do and let this game continue. I felt the crowd, they wanted to see us play great. A lot of people in the stands have followed our team, which is really cool.
I think they love watching Anna and Claire and Aiko hit her blocks. And they just wanted to see us compete and feel that spirit. It means a lot, and it's special to be here.