Louisville Volleyball Rises to No. 3 in AVCA Poll after Sweeping Rice Invitational, No. 4 Kentucky Looming

Louisville Volleyball went down to the Rice Invitational over the weekend, won all three matches and rose in the rankings. A massive week against in-state competition is looming.

Louisville Volleyball celebrates their season opening win against Texas A&M at the AVCA Showcase in Milwaukee. | AVCA

Louisville Volleyball is one of the hottest teams in America right now as it wraps up its “September Surge”.  Since the opening weekend loss at the hands of No. 6 Wisconsin, the Cards are 8-0 with four wins over ranked opponents (No. 16 Indiana, No. 18 TCU, No. 9 Texas & No. 15 Creighton).   The AVCA has moved The Ville up to No. 3 in the poll this week.    

This week, Louisville will take on two foes from the commonwealth of Kentucky.  The Ville travels to Bowling Green for a Wednesday night match against Western Kentucky at 7 pm.  The match will be streamed on ESPN+.  Sunday, the Cards will head to Memorial Coliseum in Lexington to take on the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats at 3 pm.  The match will be broadcast on ABC. 

This will be the first time the Battle for the Bluegrass will be a Top 5 matchup.  Kentucky beat Louisville 3-2 in the KFC Yum! Center last season on their way to a national runner up finish in the NCAA tournament. 

Coach Dan Meske on the week ahead:

“Kentucky looks great.  I love going to that gym, they will get a good crowd.  It will be two tough road matches for us, which I think the team is ready to embrace.  Really, Rice was our first true road match, we played Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and it felt like a road match, but this will be our second and third road match.  It is late in the year for that, but we are excited.”

Nayelis Cabello with a set vs Texas A&M | AVCA

Over the weekend, the Cards traveled to Houston for three matches in the Rice Invitational.

On Friday night, Louisville outlasted the host Rice Owls, 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 24-26, 25-12).  Outside hitter Chloe Meester, who was reigning national player of the week, led the Cards with 11 kills, three aces and four blocks.  Chloe Chicoine pitched in 14 kills and Kalyssa Blackshear had 13 kills.  Setter Nayelis Cabello had 34 assists and 18 digs & defensive specialist Payton Petersen contributed eight assists and 14 digs. 

In the second match, the Cards faced off with No. 15 Creighton.   Last season, the two met in Omaha and Louisville snapped Creighton’s 32-match home winning streak.  The Cards would once again outlast the Jays, this time 3-1 (25-22, 27-25, 23-25, 25-16). 

Chicoine led The Ville with 21 kills, Blackshear had 18 and Meester with 10.  The front wall of Addison Makun and Brooke Bultema had five and four blocks respectively.  Cabello had 52 assists and 12 digs, while Petersen had 15 kills.  

In the third game of the weekend, the Cards faced off with Northern Iowa.  The Panthers head coach is Bobbi Petersen, who is the mother of Louisville’s Payton Petersen.  The two programs played a five-set classic in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at the KFC Yum! Center.  This time, the Cards made sure it wasn’t close as they swept UNI 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-23).

Depth was the theme of the match for the Cards against the Panthers.  Coach Meske went to the bench and distributed more reps to the younger players.  Chicoine and Blackshear led the way again with 10 kills apiece.  Freshman setter Blair Thiebaud had six kills and 34 assists, getting a start in place of Cabello.  Thiebaud was the No. 4 setter in the freshman class. 

Even though she didn’t play against UNI, Cabello brought home ACC Setter of the Week honors for the second straight week.  These four programs will meet again in an “invitational” hosted by Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  It will be the last year of the four-season host rotation.