No. 6 Cardinals Beat North Carolina

Friday, October 6

Chapel Hill, NC

6:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

13-2,4-1ACC

North Carolina

7-7,1-4ACC

Louisville

North Carolina

October 06, 2023 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Louisville heads to Duke on Sunday

By: Trey Curry

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Outside hitter Charitie Luper tallied 15 kills, an ace, eight digs, and two solo blocks to lead the No. 6-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team to a 19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19 win over North Carolina on Friday night.

Louisville moved to 13-2 with the win, and as a team, they hit .246 with 60 kills, six aces, and seven blocks. Joining Luper with double digit kills was outside hitter Anna DeBeer, who had 12 kills, eight digs, an ace, and a block. Middle blocker Cara Cresse had 11 kills, seven digs, and five blocks, and opposite hitter Aiko Jones recorded 10 kills, four assists, two aces, nine digs, and two blocks. Setter Elle Glock tallied 43 assists, two kills, four digs, and a block, while libero Elena Scott had 19 digs, seven assists, and an ace.

North Carolina falls to 7-7 on the year, as they hit .203 with five aces and seven blocks and were led by Emani' Foster's 16 kills and 7 digs.

Louisville completes its four-match road trip on Sunday in Durham, N.C., as they take on the Duke Blue Devils. First serve is set for 1 p.m.

Set-by-Set Recap
Set 1
North Carolina took an early 5-2 lead on the strength of back-to-back aces, but Louisville followed that with a 5-0 run, highlighted by kills from Cresse and Jones and an ace from Scott, to take a 7-5 lead. The Tar Heels went on another 5-2 run on multiple errors by the Cards to take the lead back at 10-9, but Louisville reeled off three straight, featuring an ace by defensive specialist Ceci Rush, to go out in front at 12-10. Another kill from Jones made it 14-12, but North Carolina then went on a 10-2 run to grab control of the set at 22-16, forcing a timeout by Coach Busboom Kelly. Louisville came out and scored consecutive points, including an ace by Jones, to cut the lead to four, but the Tar Heels eventually closed the 25-19 set win out on another ace, taking a 1-0 match lead.

Set 2
The Tar Heels came out firing in the second set, taking an early 7-2 lead on five kills from Safi Hampton, forcing a Cardinal timeout, but Louisville tallied five straight points coming out on multiple kills from Luper to tie it at 7-7. North Carolina responded with a 4-1 burst to take a 11-8 lead, but Louisville regained the lead at 14-13 after consecutive Tar Heel errors as North Carolina took a timeout. Louisville maintained this lead up to 19-18 before North Carolina called another timeout, and after an ace by Luper made it 22-19, North Carolina reeled off three straight to tie it at 22 and force the Cardinals to take a timeout. With the set tied at 23 soon after, DeBeer connected with Glock for a kill to make it 24-23, and this was followed by middle blocker Phekran Kong recording the set-winning kill and finishing the 25-23 set win for Louisville. The Cardinals hit .273 with an ace and two blocks.

Set 3
Kills from Cresse, Jones, and Luper led to an early 6-3 lead and a North Carolina timeout in the third set. Coming out of the break, Louisville scored three more, highlighted by a kill from Cresse, to take a 9-3 lead. Kills by DeBeer and Luper would stretch the lead to 11-4, but the Tar Heels fought back into it, cutting the lead to 13-10 at one point, but Louisville would maintain a steady lead, as another Cresse kill made it 17-12. North Carolina again cut it to three at 18-15, but Louisville then recorded four straight points, featuring kills from DeBeer and middle blocker Hannah Sherman, to seize the momentum and take a 22-15 lead. North Carolina followed that with three straight of their own to force a Louisville timeout at 22-18, and scored another coming out on an ace to make it 22-19. The Cards didn't waver, closing the set out at 25-20 on kills from DeBeer and Luper. Louisville hit .323 with two blocks as they took a 2-1 lead.

Set 4
Louisville didn't let up in the fourth set as they took a commanding 10-3 lead on the strength of kills from five different Cardinals. The Tar Heels continued to battle, coming within five at 14-9 before kills from Glock and Kong forced a North Carolina timeout at 16-9. The Tar Heels again cut it to five at 19-14, but the Cardinals scored three straight, headlined by an ace by Aiko Jones, to take all the momentum as well as a 22-14 lead. UNC would not go down easy, tallying three straight again to cut it to 22-17, but a kill from middle blocker Reese Robins put the Cards at match point at 24-17. The Tar Heels managed to fight off match point twice, but with fhe score at 24-19, DeBeer landed the match winning kill for the Cards. Louisville hit .257 with two aces and three blocks in the final set.