No. 4 Cardinals Beat Northern Iowa 3-1

Saturday, September 13

Omaha, NE

7:30 p.m.

University of Louisville

University of Northern Iowa

Photo by: Mallory Peak | Louisville Athletics

September 13, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Nancy Worley

OMAHA, Neb. -- Chloe Chicoine and Cara Cresse each had 13 kills to lead the No. 4-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 25-17 win over Northern Iowa in the second match of the Bluejay Invitational Saturday evening on the campus of Creighton University.

Louisville (6-1) hit .257 as a team with 14 blocks and a pair of aces. Kalyssa Blackshear added nine kills and three blocks. Hannah Sherman tallied seven blocks as did Cresse. Setter Nayelis Cabello had 42 assists, 15 digs and six blocks. Libero Kamden Schrand had 15 digs with defensive specialist Hannah Kenny pitching in 12 digs.

UNI hit .165 as a team and landed five aces and nine blocks. Lily Dykstra led with 17 kills with Cassidy Hartman adding 14 kills and four blocks. Jayden Petersen, Louisville's Payton Petersen's twin sister, had 17 digs and six assists. The Panthers move to 4-4 on the season.

Louisville is back in action tomorrow at noon when the Cardinals take on the Owls of Rice at noon in the final match of the Invite.

Set-by-Set Recap
Set 1
In the first set, UofL took an early lead and built the gap to 14-9 on a block by Cara Cresse and Nayelis Cabello, the fourth in the early set. Hitting .318 enabled the Cardinals to widen the spread to seven at 19-12 when Hannah Sherman roofed her fourth block. UofL's hitting dropped to .139 as the UNI block came alive, stopping the Cardinal attack three times. The lead proved sufficient as Louisville took the first set 25-18.

Set 2
Louisville took a 7-4 lead early in the second set when Hannah Sherman killed an overpass but UNI won a long scrambly rally and then zinged an ace by the Louisville serve receive to tie at eight. An ace by Taryn Rice gave the Panthers their first lead at 11-10. Louisville took the lead back at 14-13 on a block by Sherman and Cabello and led 15-13 at the media timeout. After UNI tied at 15 on a kill by Lindsey Oldendorf, the Cards ran off three straight points sparked by an ace by Cabello. UNI called timeout to regroup but couldn't side out and the Cards scored on tip by Kalyssa Blackshear followed by another Cabello service ace. UNI burned its last timeout of the set and the move paid off as Cabello committed a service error. The Panthers used the opportunity to push back with a rally of their own and when Lily Dykstra scored to pull UNI within one at 21-20, UofL head coach Dan Meske called timeout. A block by UNI's Calia Clubb tied the score at 22. After trading points, Payton Petersen had a kill from the left side to get to set point and a kill by Chloe Chicoine gave the Cards the 25-23 win and a two-set lead going into the break.

Set 3
UNI made up a four-point deficit early in the third when they tied at 10 on a Cardinal hitting error and then scored twice more to take their first lead at 12-11. UofL called timeout and the ploy worked as UofL got a kill from and a block by Reese Robins to tie at 13. Kills by Cresse and Chicoine and a Panther error gave UofL a 17-14 lead and sparked a UNI timeout. The Panthers closed the gap to one at 19-18 on a Clubb kill and Meske used his final timeout. A Dykstra block tied the score at 19 for the Panthers who went on to go up 21-19 on a kill of an overpass. Louisville could not get out of the rotation as UNI built the lead to 23-19. Finally, a service error by Reese Booth gave the Cards a sideout. But a service error gave the Panthers set point at 24-21 and a kill by Clubb gave the set to UNI 25-21.

Set 4
In the fourth set, the score was tied at four before UofL put together a 5-1 to take a 9-5 lead when UNI called timeout. Payton Petersen had a kill and a block to widen the Cardinal lead to 11-6. Cresse tallied her seventh block of the match to put the Cardinals up 15-10. UNI called timeout when the score reached 18-10 and then scored three points after the huddle. A Chicoine kill stopped the rally, but UNI got the serve back on a kill by Isabelle Elliott. The rally was short-lived as UofL reached 23-16 on a kill by Blackshear. A hitting error by the Panthers and a service error by Tarryn Rice gave the Cards set and match point at 25-17.