Notre Dame volleyball has lost against the Louisville Cardinals in the last five matches played against them with the most recent one being a 3-0 loss early in the 2023 ACC season.
In the first set of the 2023-24 match, the Cardinals started out fast as they went on a 9-0 run against the Irish. Current senior outside hitter Sydney Palazzolo managed to stop the Cardinals run with a kill to give the Irish their first point of the night. Then-senior middle blocker Charity McDowell contributed, adding a block of her own to help the Irish gain their second point making the score 9-2. The Cardinals then added six more points for themselves to make the score 15-4, but the Irish responded going on a 4-0 run to make the score 15-8. As the two teams continued to battle back and forth, the Cardinals who were ranked No. 5 at that point in the season took the 25-18 win.
The Irish did not let that shake them going into the second set, and they pushed back going back and forth with Louisville. The two teams battled for the lead as they were tied seven different times and the lead changed two times throughout the second set. When the score was tied at 7-7, Notre Dame took a big lead after going on a 9-6 run over the Cardinals to make the score 16-13. The Cardinals managed to make a comeback to make the score 18-17, but a kill from then-graduate setter Nicole Drewnick tied up the score at 18-18. With that, the Cardinals managed a 7-0 run against the Irish to make the final score 25-18, with the overall score now 2-0 over Notre Dame. The second set was the strongest set throughout the night for the Irish, as they collectively put up a total of nine kills.
Louisville came out strong in the third set, starting with a 7-2 run against the Irish. Palazzolo shined on the court as she added a kill and two service aces to help the Irish close the score to a three-point difference, making the score 8-5. The Cardinals then put up another 7-2 run to make the score 15-7 over the Irish midway through the third set, but Notre Dame battled back and added four points of their own to keep the score gap a four-point difference. Closing out the match, the Cardinals took the final of the night 25-16 to make the overall score 3-0 over the Irish.
Current junior outside hitter Lucy Trump led the Irish on the court during that game with a total of seven kills, Palazzolo followed adding six kills for herself and McDowell added a team best of five blocks for the Irish. Current senior setter Phyona Schrader and Trump worked together throughout the matches, both having a total of four blocks during last year’s game against the Cardinals.
Now heading into the first 2024 matchup, the Irish volleyball team which 9-10 on the season so far is preparing to travel and face off with the Louisville Cardinals in two matches. The first match is going to take place on Oct. 30 starting at 7 p.m. in Louisville, and then the teams will travel back to South Bend to play their second match on Nov. 2 starting at 3 p.m. in Purcell Pavilion.
In the 2024-25 season, the Cardinals are coming off of a 3-1 win against Southern Methodist and are currently 17-3 on the season so far heading into the matches against Notre Dame. On offense, Anna DeBeer leads on the court for the Cardinals as she has a total of 273 points on the season so far. Defensively, Elena Scott leads for the Cardinals having a total of 334 digs on the season to date.
