No. 4 Louisville Sweeps Northern Kentucky

Sunday, September 8

Highland Heights, KY

2 p.m.

University of Louisville

5-1,0-0ACC

Northern Kentucky

2-4,0-0Horizon

Louisville

Northern Ky.

Photo by Violet Lewis

September 08, 2024 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Maldonado Diaz/Luper lead the offense

By: Nancy Worley

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. -- Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Charitie Luper each had eight kills to lead the No. 4-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team to a sweep of Northern Kentucky in the final match of the NKU Invitational Sunday afternoon in Highland Heights, Ky.

The Cardinals move to 5-1 on the season with the 25-11, 25-9, 26-24 win. UofL hit .314 as a team with 8.5 blocks and five aces. Alanna Bankston added eight kills and a block and Hannah Sherman notched five kills and six blocks for the Cards. Freshman Payton Petersen hit .467 with seven kills and a block. Nayelis Cabello had 33 assists at setter and libero Elena Scott had nine digs and two aces.

The Norse hit .039 as a team with three aces and six blocks. NKU (2-4) was led by Joy Banks' six kills and one block.

The Cards return to the Ville for the Cardinal Invitational as they host Northern Iowa, Creighton and Rice at the KFC Yum! Center next Friday through Sunday. The tournament schedule is here https://gocards.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule.

Set by Set Recap
Set 1
Louisville turned a slender lead at 11-7 to a commanding lead with a 10-2 run to go up 21-9. The Norse scored two consecutive points to get to 11 but the Cards ran off the final four points with Alanna Bankston putting the set away at 25-11. UofL hit .324 with Luper leading the way with three kills and Hannah Sherman tallying three blocks.

Set 2
The Cards pulled out to a 12-7 lead early in the second set and then went on a 10-0 run to go up 22-7. Luper connected with Nayelis Cabello for set point and Alanna Bankston got her second set point of the day with a kill from the right side for the 25-8. UofL hit .333 in the set with two blocks and two aces and held the Norse to -.048 hitting to take a 2-0 set lead into the break.

Set 3
After the break, Louisville seemingly pulled away from the Norse, building a six-point lead at 16-10. But NKU had a four point run, powered by the serving of Joy Banks, who brought the Norse within two at 16-14. Four straight points served by Lucy Cluxton saw the Cards' margin shrink to one point at 20-19. The teams started trading points and an attack error by NKU gave UofL its first set/match point. But it would take four chances before the Cards finally prevailed at 26-24.