No. 2 Volleyball Set to Host Clemson and No. 11 Georgia Tech

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 2 University of Louisville volleyball team hosts two ACC matchups at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena against Clemson on Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET and No. 11 Georgia Tech on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Sunday's game will be televised on ESPN.

The Cardinals opened ACC play with back-to-back sweeps of Miami and Florida State. Reigning AVCA and ACC Player of the Week Claire Chaussee finished the weekend with 26 kills, one ace, eight digs, and two blocks. In just two starts this season, outside hitter Nena Mbonu had 18 kills on 27 attempts throughout the weekend. Senior Amaya Tillman notched 11 kills, two aces, and 12 blocks while Aiko Jones recorded 14 kills, three aces, 11 digs, and five blocks. Libero Elena Scott finished the weekend with 22 digs and four aces, while Raquel Lazaro led the team with 68 assists. The Cardinals are hitting .298 on the season.

Louisville extends its unbeaten streak in ACC play to 31 straight matches and now stands at 11-1 overall and moves to 2-0 in ACC play.

Clemson
Louisville and Clemson have met ten times with the Cardinals leading the series 10-0. When they met in 2021, UofL swept the Tigers at Clemson. Led by head coach Jackie Simpson Kirr in her second season, the Tigers are 9-5 overall and 0-2 in ACC play. Clemson maintains a well-balanced offense led by junior outside hitter Camryn Hannah. Hannah has 220 kills hitting .276, nine aces, 49 digs, and 23 blocks so far this season. Junior duo Cate Long and Colleen Finney also had offense of the Tigers. Long, a 6-1 outside hitter, has 91 kills, 15 aces, 95 digs, and seven blocks while Finney, a 6-1 middle blocker, has 116 kills, three aces, and 29 blocks. Sophomore libero Devan Taylor leads the team with 255 digs.

Georgia Tech
Louisville and Georgia Tech will face off for the 18^th time, with the Cards leading the series 13-4. In 2021, UofL defeated Georgia Tech 3-1 at L&N Arena. In her 9^th season, head coach Michelle Collier has led the Yellow Jackets to a 9-2 start (2-0). Their two losses have come from ranked opponents in No. 6 Ohio State and No. 23 Arkansas. Georgia Tech returns 2021 AVCA First Team All-American Julia Bergmann to the lineup. Bergmann, a 6-5 outside hitter, has 201 kills hitting .305, 16 aces, 85 digs, and 18 blocks so far this season. The Yellow Jackets also return outside hitter Bianco Bertolino. Bertolino, who was named to the 2021 ACC All-Freshman Team, has recorded 79 kills, 13 aces, 129 digs, and 11 blocks. Senior middle blocker Erin Moss has 82 kills hitting .349 and 30 blocks.

Notes:
In 2022, UofL has had 8 sets go "overtime" with a 7-1 mark in deuce games. In 2021, UofL had 11 deuce sets with an 8-3 mark in deuce games.

Conference Openers
UofL is 5-3 in ACC Opening matches.
UofL was 1-0 in AAC Opening matches.
UofL was 8-0 in Big East Opening matches.
UofL was 9-1 in Conference USA Opening matches.
Since 1995, UofL is 23-4 in conference openers.

Team Rankings
As a team, Louisville is ranked first in the ACC in hitting percentage (.298) and first in opponent hitting percentage (.154), first in blocks (124 total) and blocks per set (3.02), and second in service aces per set (2.07).

Cardinals in the ACC Rankings
Cara Cresse – 4^th in blocks with 1.32 blocks/set
Anna DeBeer - 7th in service aces with 0.43 aces/set
Aiko Jones – 9^th in service aces with 0.41 aces/set
Raquel Lazaro – 4th in assists with 9.83 assists/set
Amaya Tillman – 2^nd in blocks with 1.37 blocks/set, 4^th in hitting % with .368
Elena Scott - 5^th in digs with 4.02 digs/set
Claire Chaussee – 9^th in kills with 3.39 kills/set

NCAA Team Rankings
Hitting Percentage: No. 10 (.298)
Blocks/Set: No. 4 (3.02)
Aces/Set: No. 9 (2.07)

Reloading from Historic 2021 Run
In 2022, statistically, the Cardinals return:
Kills: 74%
Service Aces: 72%
Points: 72%
Digs: 83%
Blocks: 62%

Louisville at Home
Sets Lost Matches Lost
Last Season: 6 0
This Season: 4 1

No. 2 Volleyball Set to Host Clemson and No. 11 Georgia Tech

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Players Mentioned

Claire Chaussee

Cara Cresse

Anna DeBeer

Aiko Jones

Raquel Lazaro

Nena Mbonu

Elena Scott

Amaya Tillman

University of Louisville Athletics