Volleyball Today: Louisville vs. Pitt; Babcock AVCA POY; coaching carousel spins on

On the eve of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship, we have a quick look at that Sunday match including the availability of Louisville star Anna DeBeer,;the AVCA players of the year — all named Olivia —  more coaching movement; and more boffo ESPN TV ratings in this edition of Volleyball Today:

Louisville vs. Penn State for the NCAA crown

The NCAA championship match is again at 3 p.m. Sunday on ABC and pits the home team, Louisville of the ACC against Penn State of the Big Ten. 

Louisville (30-5), has won five in a row and is coming off its 21-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-17 victory Thursday over ACC rival Pittsburgh.

Penn State (34-2) has won 11 in a row. The Nittany Lions pulled off a 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13 reverse sweep Thursday against Nebraska.

Louisville is back in the title match for the second time in three years. The Cardinals have never won the NCAA title. Penn State is back into the last match for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014. Penn State has won it all seven times, second only to Stanford (9).

We will have more on the match Sunday, but the biggest question is about Louisville senior Anna DeBeer, who left the semifinals early in the fourth set with a leg injury. She did not play again and was at the AVCA lunch to be honored as a second-team All-American, wearing a dress, a sneaker on one foot and her injured one in a boot.

“It’s an ankle injury, so I think it’s kind of day to day,” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly said Friday. “We’ll see. We’re going to do everything we can to get her on the court, but we do have a great team behind her. If she can’t go, we have some options.”

Kelly admitted that had the match been Saturday DeBeer was unlikely to play.

“The extra day gives us hope. I think, if we were playing tomorrow, there would be no hope. I think it’s also just much better for our sport when today we have the All-American banquet, we have interviews, we have practice. It’s a busy day. It would feel very rushed and crazy to be playing tomorrow. So I think just for the whole team (the extra day between the semifinals and final) is so much better for our sport.”

DeBeer, the hometown hero and leader of the team, averages 3.37 kills per set, has 30 aces, is a tremendous defensive player who averages 2.41 digs, and comes up big time after time when Louisville needs her.

Freshman Payton Peterson had the set of her life when subbed in for DeBeer on Thursday, coming up with two kills — one out of the back row — in four errorless attempts, including the match winner, and back-to-back aces early in the set. She also had four digs.

“There’s not much difference in preparation,” Kelly said. “I’m thankful, looking back, how we run our practices, we have mixed teams every single day. We make sure we do drills where it’s not starters versus non-starters the whole time. So all these players are used to playing with each other. This is one time I’m very thankful for that. Sometimes I think maybe we shouldn’t do it as much as we do. Now that’s paying off. The comfort should be no problem.”

Pitt’s Olivia Babcock is the AVCA POY

Olivia Babcock, the 6-4 right side who was the national freshman of the year in 2023, is the American Volleyball Coaches Association national player of the year. It was announced Friday at the AVCA’s annual All-American luncheon in which players of the year were also honored in Division II, Division III, NAIA, junior college and high school.

The voting was done before Thursday’s national semifinals in which Pitt lost to ACC rival Louisville. 

The Division II player of the year is Olivia Henneman-Dallape of Ferris State and the DIII honor went to Olivia Foley of three-time NCAA-champion Juniata.

All three NCAA winners are named Olivia.

Eva Joldersma of Indiana Wesleyan was the NAIA player of the year. 

The junior-college honor went to Laura Bonomi of Cowley College.

The national high school player of the year is Marcaria Spears of Prestonwood Christian Academy in Texas. Spears, who goes by Cari, is the daughter of LSU and NFL player Marcus Spears and LSU and WNBA player Aisha Smith. Read our feature on the Spears family in 2023 here.

NCAA coaching carousel spins on

First another opening: Marshall’s Ari Aganus resigned Friday after six seasons at the Huntington, West Virginia, school. Her record of 75-84 included 15-14 this past season ,6-10 in the Sun Belt Conference.

One of Marshall’s victories was over Elon, which announced the hiring of Matt Troy as its head coach. Troy has been the coach for six seasons at Division III Johns Hopkins. He takes over the program in Elon, North Carolina, that finished 11-18, 5-13 in the CAA.

UNC Wilmington, also of the CAA, hired Lorelie Hoyer. She’s been the head coach at Division II Indiana of Pennsylvania the past three seasons. UNCW finished 7-18 last season, 4-14 in the CAA.

California Baptist hired alum Trevor Johnson as its coach. Johnson, who spent last season as an assistant at Georgia, played at CBU and won back-to-back NAIA titles in 2004 and 2005. He later served as an assistant for both the men’s and women’s programs. The Lancers finished 8-22 last season, 7-9 in the WAC.

ESPN improves volleyball ratings again

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