‘Everybody was so dialed in.’ Louisville earns shot at its first NCAA volleyball title.

Three No. 1 seeds will leave the NCAA volleyball Final Four in Louisville without a championship.

The one that survives to raise the trophy on Sunday will know they earned it.

Thursday night’s national semifinals brought ear-splitting intensity to the KFC Yum! Center amid two tightly contested matches featuring America’s top four teams.

In the end, Louisville (30-5) and Penn State (34-2) were left standing, setting up a nationally televised showdown for the NCAA title on Sunday at 3 p.m. (ABC).

Louisville advanced to the championship match for the second time in its history and will be seeking its first NCAA crown after beating Atlantic Coast Conference rival Pittsburgh, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, 21-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-17. The Panthers beat the Cardinals in both of their previous meetings this season.

Penn State will be making its 11th title game appearance and seeking its eighth national championship after overcoming a two-set deficit to knock off Nebraska 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13.

Thursday’s matches were played in front of an NCAA Tournament record crowd of 21,726.

Louisville and Penn State will be meeting Sunday for the second time this season. The Nittany Lions swept the Cardinals 3-0 when they collided Sept. 3 at Penn State.

“Incredible match tonight. Pitt’s an exceptional team, and they have players that you can do everything right and they still can take over the game,” Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly said after Thursday’s win. “I was just so proud of the way our team played and battled and stuck with what we’d worked on this entire week. Just the amount of trust we showed, not only in the team, but in ourselves, was pretty incredible.”

Louisville hit .320 in the match off of 65 kills, 54 digs, 12 blocks, and eight service aces. Three players recorded 14 kills — Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, and Sofia Maldonado Diaz.

ACC Freshman of the Year Nayelis Cabello recorded 44 assists, eight digs, and two aces; Payton Petersen came in to post two kills, four digs, and two aces. ACC Defensive Player of the Year Elena Scott tallied 14 digs.

ACC Player of the Year and AVCA Player of the Year Olivia Babcock led the way for Pitt with a career-high 33 kills on 65 attacks, two blocks, and five digs.

DeBeer left Thursday’s match with an injury during the final set, leaving her status for Sunday in doubt. Petersen stepped in and helped fuel the Cards’ final push to victory.

“It just felt like everybody was so dialed in, we could have put anybody in and had the same outcome,” Busboom Kelly said. “Super proud and a really unbelievable performance against maybe the best team in the country.”

In the nightcap, which did not end till nearly 1 a.m., Penn State pulled off the first reverse sweep — losing the first two sets before winning the final three — in the NCAA Tournament semifinals since 2018.

Sunday

Louisville vs. Penn State

What: NCAA Volleyball Tournament championship match

When: 3 p.m.

Where: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville

TV: ABC

Records: Louisville 30-5, Penn State 34-2

Last meeting: Penn State won 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 on Sept. 3, 2024, at University Park, Pennsylvania

This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 11:00 AM.