Texas and Louisville will battle for NCAA women's volleyball championship

OMAHA, Neb. – On Thursday night, Texas libero Zoe Fleck needed to correct a statement she had been making for years.

Fleck had long been verbose about the match she played at Texas with UC Santa Barbara during the second round of the 2019 NCAA volleyball tournament. Fleck’s Gauchos lost in five sets, but she still considered that to be the most fun she had ever had on a volleyball court.

Until Thursday evening.

Fleck and the Longhorns shook off a slow start in a 26-28, 25-16, 25-18, 25-20 win over San Diego in the NCAA semifinals. With the triumph at the CHI Health Center, Texas advances to play Louisville for the NCAA championship.

“Tonight I'm revising that statement (about the UCSB-Texas match),” Fleck said. “That game was the most fun volleyball game I've ever been part of. I am so incredibly proud of every single person in that locker room, one to 18.”

Texas (27-1) finished off San Diego (31-2) and moved within a win of its first national championship since 2012 with a Logan Eggleston kill on Thursday. That kill secured a five-point victory in the fourth set. It also came just moments after the evening’s biggest play.

With Texas leading 16-15 in a set it once faced a 4-0 deficit in, San Diego served to start a long rally. At first, Texas was unable to get a point off swings by Asjia O’Neal and Skinner. A dive by Fleck prevented USD’s Breana Edwards from evening the score.

On its second attempt, San Diego went back to Edwards. The outside hitter’s attempted kill deflected off the Texas block and went across the court to Skinner, who punched the ball in the air with her right hand. Texas setter Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres and Fleck both dove to keep the rally going, and Fleck somehow saved a volleyball that Eggleston passed back to San Diego’s side of the net. That sequence ended with Eggleston herself stumbling into a pileup of Longhorns that by that time included Fleck, Ka'aha'aina-Torres and Keonilei Akana.

As the play continued, the Longhorns picked themselves up and got back into position. A few seconds later, Ka'aha'aina-Torres served up Skinner for an emphatic kill.

Point, Texas.

"I think it was more about our attitude of not letting that ball drop," Ka'aha'aina-Torres said. "We were down by four to start the set. Not a great way to start. But we knew we had to be gritty. And we knew that we were going to have to go for every single ball."

Added Skinner: "I remember everyone screaming, ‘Get up, get up,’ because we have to keep playing. It was an awesome effort on our end."

That play gave UT a 17-15 lead. According to Fleck, it also encapsulated a strength on the Texas roster.

"I think it just shows that we can rely on each other, right? Nobody on this team has to have the best game of their life or has to have a perfect game to win that," Fleck said. "We all come from teams or come from places where we have each individually had to be that person to have a perfect game to win the match, and to come together with a group of those people, we can just rely on each other. Someone can have a bad game, two people can have a bad game and other people will step up and fill those holes."

Skinner finished with a match-high 17 kills and a .394 hitting percentage. Eggleston struggled in an opening set that Texas lost, but she ended the match with her 16th kill. Six of Molly Phillips’ 14 kills came as UT grabbed a 17-13 lead in the second set.

After posting a .056 hitting percentage in the first set, UT hit at least .300 in each of the next three sessions. Texas has now rallied for a win in all five matches that it has dropped the first set in.

“I think that everyone can say the first set was not our perfect set. It was not good volleyball on our end and we lost by two points,” Phillips said. “I think that that's also something that we know we can turn on and just rely on our training.”

For Skinner, Thursday marked another strong outing for her in Omaha. While playing at Kentucky two seasons ago, Skinner totaled 63 kills over five matches played in a tournament that Omaha hosted in its entirety because of the pandemic. The final 19 of those kills came in a championship match that Kentucky beat Texas in.

Twenty months later, Skinner and the Longhorns will join forces as the chase for another championship comes to a close. The NCAA championship match will be held at the CHI Health Center at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday.

"Every team is so different so you can't compare them. Just the drive and grit we have on this team is something that I've never been part of. To be able to play alongside these girls has been an absolute dream," Skinner said. "Kind of took a little bit for us to get our groove (against San Diego). Ended up turning it on, and that was that. But super excited to be back and love Omaha."

Louisville defeats Pitt

Taking the court at its second consecutive Final Four, the Louisville volleyball team slammed its foot on the gas — then hit a speed bump.

"We just started playing sloppy," U of L head coach Dani Busboom Kelly told ESPN's Katie Goerge after her team dropped the second set 25-23. "Pitt, they just grind you down, and if you start playing their game and start getting ground down, it’s gonna get a little sticky."

The Cardinals (31-2), true to their motto, didn't flinch. Trailing the Panthers 19-16 in the momentum-shifting third set, Louisville went on a 9-3 run to win 25-22. And when Pitt responded with a 5-0 run to take Set 4 and force a decisive fifth set, Busboom Kelly's team left do doubt.

With its season on the line, Louisville jumped out to an 8-0 lead and didn't look back. For the first time in program history, the Cardinals are headed to the NCAA championship match.

No. 2 overall seeded U of L took down its co-Atlantic Coast Conference champions in five sets (25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2) Thursday night in the second of two national semifinals at CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Pitt (31-4) handed the Cardinals one of their two losses of the 2022 campaign back in October, but Busboom Kelly and company had the last laugh when it mattered most.

With the win, Louisville will play the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, Texas, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN2) with a championship on the line. Looking for their third title and first since 2012, the Longhorns defeated San Diego in four sets before the Cardinals took the court against the Panthers.

U of L will be the first ACC women’s volleyball program to play in an NCAA title match since the tournament’s inception in 1981. Busboom Kelly and company are just the second Louisville women’s sports team to reach a national championship; Jeff Walz and the women’s basketball team has done so twice.

Busboom Kelly also made history Thursday night as the just the second female head coach to reach the national championship, joining Florida’s Mary Wise. A win Saturday in her home state — in the same arena she’s already won NCAA titles as a player and assistant coach with Nebraska — would make Busboom Kelly the first female head coach to bring home the tournament crown. — Brooks Holton, Louisville Courier Journal

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas, Louisville will play for NCAA women's volleyball title