LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 1-seeded University of Louisville volleyball team advanced to its fourth consecutive NCAA Regional Final appearance after sweeping No. 4-seeded Purdue 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 in Freedom Hall on Thursday night. "It was a great effort by us. We are pretty excited with the way we came out tonight and just stayed super consistent the whole match. Purdue is a great team. They are always fighters. I mean, they hit [.273], which is excellent," said head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. "They did a lot of great things well, but I'm just really proud that we finally feel like we learned from the last three matches we've had. So, it's like we came out and just had a different attitude and mindset." Louisville recorded a season-high hitting percentage, posting a .467 clip on 52 kills, 33 digs, five total blocks, and three service aces. Freshman setter Nayelis Cabello served all of the Cards' aces and added 23 of UofL's 51 assists. Outside hitter Charitie Luper hit .571 on the match with 13 kills and nine digs. Outside hitter Anna DeBeer posted a .393 hitting percentage with a team-high 15 kills and seven digs. Sofia Maldonado Diaz recorded seven kills on 14 attempts and led Louisville in blocks with three. Middle blockers Phekran Kong, Cara Cresse, and Reese Robins each added to the block total as Robins contributed seven kills on 10 attempts to the offense. Purdue hit .273 against the Cards, with 37 kills, 26 digs, and 7.0 total blocks. Middle blocker Raven Colvin led the Boilermakers, hitting .550 with 13 kills and five blocks in her final match with the team. Outside hitter and AVCA Player of the Year semi-finalist Eva Hudson notched 10 kills, six digs, and two blocks for Purdue. Louisville advances to take on No. 2-seeded Stanford for the third time this season. The match is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, inside Freedom Hall; the match can be viewed on ESPN2. The winner will advance to the NCAA Final Four that takes place in the KFC Yum! Center on Dec. 19. Louisville and Stanford are even in their meetings in 2024. UofL grabbed the win over Stanford on Sept. 29 in the Yum! Center as the Cards swept the Cardinal in three sets. In their second meeting, Stanford took the 3-1 win in California on Nov. 30, the final match of the regular season. Saturday's matchup will be only the fifth all-time meeting between the schools.

Set 1: Louisville 25, Purdue 17 Purdue opened the scoring on a kill, but got Louisville on the board with a service error. The Boilermakers added one more kill before the Cards went on a 4-0 run on kills from Robins, Kong, and Luper, and an ace from Cabello. At 5-2, Purdue nabbed another point before Kong added her second kill. After the Boilermakers scored once more on a kill, DeBeer tallied her first of the evening before Cresse and Sofia Maldonado Diaz teamed up for a big block to pull UofL ahead 8-4. Purdue grabbed two more quick points on a kill and solo block, before Louisville went on a 3-0 run that forced the Boilermakers to take their first timeout down 11-6. Out of the timeout, Purdue continued Louisville's run with an attack error, but a service error from the Cards ended the 4-0 run at 12-7. Points bounced between teams until UofL pulled ahead 17-11 and on a 4-0 run that saw both Cresse and DeBeer recording kills. Down 17-11, Purdue used its second timeout, but Louisville continued its run to extend their lead to 19-11. The run ended on an error, but Kong quickly swung momentum back with a kill. The teams traded points until the end when a kill from DeBeer gave the Cards their first set point at 24-16. The Boilermakers held off the end of the set with a kill, but Robins ended the set 25-17 with a kill.

Set 2: Louisville 25, Purdue 18 Purdue took the first two points of the set off of a kill and a block before Louisville found an answer in kills from Luper and Robins to even the score at two. Points went back and forth as Luper, DeBeer, Maldonado Diaz, Cresse, and Robins racked up kills and Maldonado Diaz and Kong stuffed a block as the Cards led 15-12 at the media timeout. The Boilermakers came out of the timeout with a kill, but Maldonado Diaz knocked down another kill of her own. UofL stayed in the lead and points continued to be traded until Luper tallied two kills in a row that made Purdue burn its first timeout. After the timeout, Cresse and Robins posted a big block for Louisville that put UofL ahead 20-15. Purdue added a point on a service error from the Cards, but Robins answered with her fifth kill of the night. The Boilermakers chose to burn their second timeout again after two kills from Luper that put Louisville within reach of the set at 23-17. Purdue added one more kill after the timeout but could not fight for the set win. A kill from Maldonado Diaz put the Cards at set point 24-18 and DeBeer sealed the second set win with a kill at 25-18. Louisville hit a match-high .531 in the second set with both DeBeer and Luper finishing the set with double digit kills.

Set 3: Louisville 25, Purdue 18 Louisville took the first point on an attack error by the Boilermakers, but a service error from the Cards gave Purdue a point on the board. The next 16 points saw eight ties as Robins, Maldonado Diaz, Cresse, and Luper tacked on kills for UofL tied at nine-all. Louisville went on a 5-0 run that included two kills from Luper, two service aces from Cabello, and a solo block from Kong that saw Purdue take its first timeout. Out of the timeout, the Boilermakers scored on a service error, but were still down 13-10. The Cards tabbed on four more points to lead 17-11 and force Purdue to burn its last timeout. DeBeer added on another kill out of the timeout, but the Boilermakers responded with two points of their own. Louisville went on a quick 3-0 run to pull ahead 21-13 off of kills from Maldonado Diaz and DeBeer until Purdue answered with a 3-0 run on a kill and two blocks. Cresse ended the Boilermaker run with a kill to extend the Cards' lead to six. The next few points went back and forth until Robins knocked down a kill to put UofL at match point, 24-18. A block connection between Kong and Maldonado Diaz gave Louisville the win 25-18.

NCAA Volleyball – Louisville Regional Louisville 3 – Purdue 0 Dec. 12, 2024 | Freedom Hall Louisville Post match quotes

Dani Busboom-Kelly Opening statement) "It was great effort by us. We are pretty excited with the way we came out tonight and just stayed super consistent the whole match. Purdue is a great team. They are always fighters. They hit .270 which is excellent. They did a lot of great things well, but I'm just really proud that we finally feel like we learned from the last three matches we've had. We came out and just had a different attitude and mindset."

(On the hitting percentage a season high) Dani Busboom-Kelly: "I thought our setters played one of their best games of the year. They were just really consistent, I thought their decision making was good. We have amazing hitters, when they put them in a great position, it makes it much easier for them to kill the ball. I thought we played with a lot of confidence, and even if we had one error, got blocked and we came back with the same effort and the same mentality, and so just the consistent mindset was pretty huge."

(On having momentum going into Saturday's match vs Stanford) Dani Busboom-Kelly: "You definitely want momentum, and having a game under our belt in Freedom Hall is also big and so there's some familiarity going into Saturday. Stanford is a great team, so we're going to have to play even much better than we did tonight, if we want to come out on top of that one. This was a great start and like I said, good to see us have a low stress game after what we've been through the last few weeks."

(On putting everything together for this game and having the performance they did) Charitie Luper: "For me personally, it came from just having that feeling that our season could have ended our last game. I kind of took that into the game today, and I just remembered that feeling, and I just kept constantly telling myself, I don't want to feel this again. So, every single time I had a chance to kill the ball, just to put it away, I made sure that I did."

Anna DeBeer: "I agree, you never really know when your last game is going to be, especially for us seniors. So, I think our mindset was just coming in and giving it our all. We really learned a lot from our last game and how that feels and coming in and being the attacker today and really just going after it just shows where our team is at right now, and our mindset."

(On if this performance was the best they've played all year) Charitie Luper: "You know, that's funny you ask at. At the end of the game, I actually told the girls, I said, 'This is the best we've ever played this year,' I honestly think it was, I mean, it just felt like everyone was playing so free, and we were just having so much fun. Like Dani [Busboom Kelly] said, if we were to make a mistake, no one would be down on themselves, our heads were high the entire game. It just felt like things were just clicking on all cylinders today."

Anna DeBeer: "That's something we talked about. We've done all the work up to this point. So we just wanted to [go] out there and just do it. There's nothing else you can do, everyone's been putting in the work all year, so I think that was the game changer today. We were just having fun and going after it."

(On the crowd/atmosphere) Dani Busboom-Kelly: "I think it's definitely different, but you can really hear the crowd. I like how that second level is almost like an overhang, so it feels like they're pretty close to the court too. You can feel that energy. Even though we joke that it's Freedom Hall, much different than the Yum! Center, it's pretty fun to play here, because you can feel the momentum. It's a big building and it's pretty impressive what the acoustics do. It doesn't feel that big when you're on the court."

Charitie Luper : "Even though we're not at the Yum!, I'm so grateful that we're playing here. It's just amazing to have our fans just be here with us and just have our backs no matter if we're down, if we're up, and it's something that I'm just super grateful for and I'll never take it for granted. Our fans have always been there for us, and we hope that they're going to continue to be there for us."

Anna DeBeer: "For a Thursday game, at whatever time it is, I feel like they showed out pretty good."

(On how the team is different now from the last two Stanford matches) Anna DeBeer: "I feel like everyone has just gotten better. We're a different team than we were early on in the year, and so are they. Playing them in the last week of conference play, obviously, that was a tough last week in conference. It really could go either way. They're a really aggressive team. They're really competitive. I think it's just going to be a really good matchup to see."

Dani Busboom-Kelly: "I think you've seen the senior leadership from both teams just shine throughout the season. Their seniors are playing exceptional. Our seniors are playing exceptional. That's what you hope for this time of year. If you want to win big, your seniors have to step up and lead the team. You can tell Stanford's [seniors] are and you can tell ours are."

(On the difference of playing in Freedom Hall) Charitie Luper: "Personally, I focus on where the placement of the net is. For me, when the lights are super bright, the net kind of looks invisible. Whenever I'm hitting or serving, I just really focus on where the tape is so I don't miss. I just have to adjust my eyes. Depth perception is one thing that I really have to focus on in this gym."

Anna Debeer: "I think the practices before, really taking those seriously, and getting used to everything. Every gym is different. I feel like that gave us confidence, having a practice in here before, it felt good. And then once you get adjusted to that, I think it's fine wherever we're at."

(On freshmen stepping up – at what point in the season do you know when they are ready for the big stage?) Dani Busboom Kelly (I don't think you ever know. As a coach, you work to prepare them all year. Nay (Cabello) has had a lot of experience, so you just hope that she has the confidence to come out in big moments and play great. When Nay lets her personality shine through, that's when she plays her best and that's what we've been talking about in the last few weeks is we've got to get more of that personality and that grit to show and I thought it was great tonight."

(On the longer turnaround between matches in the regional round – what does the next two days look like?) Dani Busboom Kelly "We're going to enjoy the win. That's one thing our program has always been good at is enjoying the moment and not taking for granted how hard it is to be here. So we're going to enjoy it tonight and tomorrow we'll have a practice and that will be focused on Stanford and some adjustments we can make from the last time we played them. Just a lot of rest and a lot of good food."

(On making it four times in a row to the regional finals – what does it mean for this program?) "It's funny, I was thinking about this before the game – this senior class shouldn't be defined by their last game, whether it's Saturday or whether it's next Sunday, because what they've accomplished is pretty incredible and I didn't even realize it's four Elite Eights in a row. The year before Anna DeBeer got here, we were celebrating like we won the national championship going to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in a long time. So to be able to continue the success is really hard and I'm just proud of the team and the players who came here and trusted that we were going to do it to actually do it and they were the ones who carried the load."

(Do you do different things when you are playing at home in the postseason? "I think earning the right to host is special enough, and you want to use that to your advantage ... so like sleeping in your own beds and giving the players the time they need to be in a great mindset. We went out for a nice dinner last night. We went to Jeff Ruby's, and we wouldn't normally do that for a home weekend. It's not too different, but a little bit. We try to make it special, mostly with food. Make sure these guys are feeling great."

(Takeaway from the last Stanford match, and what regrets did you have about the way that went?) "The regrets are hard. I mean, we were in deuce games like we had. We had blown a four or five-point lead in game one and game four… so I think the regret is not being able to close that out, and looking back, how did we let Stanford back into those sets. Then I thought, some of the things that we defend well, we did not against them. I'm hoping that we can make that adjustment. It feels like we will if we just do what we know we can do. I also think our serving can be much better, and that's what was great tonight, to see our serving really kind of take over that match. That's what you need to do against a great offense, and in particular, a fantastic setter."