Five big questions for the NCAA volleyball championship match

History will happen Sunday in the NCAA women's volleyball championship match when No. 1 seeds Penn State and Louisville take the court at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.

No woman has won the NCAA head coaching title since the tournament's inception in 1981. That will change, as either Louisville's Dani Busboom Kelly or Penn State's Katie Schumacher-Cawley will win the championship.

For Penn State, it would be an eighth title, bringing the Nittany Lions closer to Stanford's record of nine. For Louisville and the ACC, it would be a first.

Many eyes will be on who will take the field at the KFC Yum! of Louisville. Center: Will Louisville fifth-year senior Anna DeBeer play? The outside hitter injured his ankle near the start of the fourth set Thursday in a 3-1 semifinal win over Pittsburgh.

His absence could have been devastating for the Cardinals. DeBeer is one of the most experienced players in this final four and had 14 kills, 35 receptions (with only 2 errors) and 9 attacks before leaving the game.

But freshman Payton Petersen stepped in and played very well, and the Cardinals wrapped up the win against the overall No. 1 seed Panthers. DeBeer leads the Cardinals in kills per set (3.37) this season. Busboom Kelly said Louisville would “do everything we can to get her on the court, but we have a great team behind her.”

Schumacher-Cawley said Penn State will prepare as if DeBeer is going to play: “Being a senior and being here at Louisville, I think if she has the ability to compete, she will.”

Louisville also competed in the 2022 NCAA finals, falling to Texas. This is Penn State's first finals since winning its seventh title in 2014, and Nittany Lions players say they believe they are returning the program to where it belongs.

There will be a lot at stake on Sunday, so here are things to keep in mind in the final.

Will DeBeer play?

With Louisville up two sets to one and up 2-0 in the fourth against Pitt on Thursday, DeBeer slid to midcourt to form a block with teammate Phekran Kong. He jumped with Kong, hands outstretched. He fell with Kong, but DeBeer's right foot landed on Kong's left heel. His ankle twisted to the side.

The referees stopped play immediately and DeBeer remained on the court for one minute before being helped off the court and then walking off the court. Without her, Louisville stepped on the accelerator. The Cardinals led 9-5 when she returned to the bench.

He told Busboom Kelly that he wanted to get back in the game. But when he tried to jump, it hurt.

Louisville never relinquished the lead DeBeer helped provide, and cruised to a 22-17 victory to advance to Sunday's title game. After the final point, DeBeer limped onto the court to celebrate, but stayed out of the Cardinals' pile.

DeBeer attended Louisville's practice on Friday, using a mobility scooter. She did not participate.

If she can't go Sunday, it will be difficult to replace the graduate student and Louisville native. There aren't many people on the planet with his combination of talent and experience: He has 277 career kills in NCAA tournaments alone.

“It's an ankle injury, so I think it's a day-to-day thing,” Busboom Kelly said Friday. “The extra day [between the semifinals and final, which used to be Saturday night] gives us hope. I think if we were playing [Saturday] “There would be no hope.”

How much history will be made?

Those who don't follow volleyball will be surprised to know that a woman has never before won the NCAA title as a head coach. Part of the reason is that there are more men's coaches, especially at prominent Division I programs. The most prestigious and highest-paying jobs in college volleyball are on the women's side, which has 344 Division I teams, compared with less than 30 on the male side.

SMU head coach Sam Erger says women were overlooked for coaching jobs for a long time because historically men won championships, and that created a cycle.

“I don't understand this whole thing: 'We can't find a qualified person.' [female coach]'” he said. “I think that's nonsense.”

Female head coaches have been advancing, with Busboom Kelly and Schumacher-Cawley being prime examples. Both won national championships as players, and Busboom Kelly also won one as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Nebraska.

“[I’m] I'm really proud that we can be role models and hopefully blaze a new trail and show ADs that women can do it,” Busboom Kelly said. “We can be moms and we can be high-level coaches.

“I think it will be incredible for the sport to get this monkey off its back and put this behind us, where it's not historic for a woman to win, it's just normal. It will be fantastic when every final four there is an opportunity for a woman to win.”

Penn State middle blocker Taylor Trammell said, “Katie is paving the way for us. If we want to get into coaching, it shows that there is a channel and a path that we can follow too, just like her, to be successful. A “Every little girl says, 'Hey, I want to be a great DI coach,' they can do it.”

The other potential story is that Louisville could become the first ACC team to win the NCAA volleyball title. New ACC member Stanford's nine titles, of course, came before joining the league. Busboom Kelly, who took over at Louisville in 2017, also credits four-time Final Four participant Pitt with a big part of the ACC's rise.

“Eight years ago, I felt like I was always fighting the battle of 'Well, I want to play in the Big Ten. I'm going to go to this school just because they're in the Big Ten,'” he said. “Now we don't hear that anymore, which is great.”

How electric will it be in Louisville?

It's similar to Nebraska playing near its Lincoln campus in the last four finals in Omaha. There's just that extra level of energy when a hometown or home-state team is in the final four. The Cardinals have carried that pressure all season trying to reach the finals in their hometown, and they did.

The level of excitement was high for the final four, with a record semi-final crowd of 21,726 (not counting the four horses that were on court to represent each team) and two fascinating matches, the second of which lasted five sets .

“The crowd was rocking, so just feeding off their fire was huge,” Louisville's Kong said.

On Thursday, fans stood outside the KFC Yum! The center holds cameras and signs (“We came all the way from Maine for this,” one said) as the teams made their entrances on the red carpet. A sea of ​​red (both Louisville and Nebraska fans) invaded the arena. When DeBeer was introduced, a thunderous roar was heard.

While some Nebraska fans, who travel especially well, left after the Huskers' semifinal loss, others will stay until the final to cheer on Busboom Kelly. She is a Nebraska native and won the national championship as a player for the Huskers in 2006.

Can Louisville stop Mruzik and Jurevicius?

Jess Mruzik and Caroline Jurevicius did the most damage in Thursday's reverse sweep of Nebraska: Mruzik had 26 kills and Jurevicius 20. Louisville's blocking, which was effective against Pitt, will try to keep this duo in check a little more. It won't be easy.

Mruzik, who transferred to Penn State from Michigan before last season, hits the ball so hard and at such sharp angles that some of the best teams in the country have had trouble stopping it. Mruzik led the Nittany Lions past Nebraska by hitting .300. In the process, he surpassed 2,000 career kills.

“It was one of the best performances I've ever seen from an outside hitter,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “Finding ways to spike, hitting our block, hitting really hard crosswise. We thought we had it, but she did a great job of hitting us with her fingertips.”

Jurevicius, a transfer from Nebraska, had two of his biggest games of the season against his former team: Thursday's semifinal and the Nittany Lions' regular-season win on Nov. 29, when he had 18 kills.

Jurevicius talked about the determination it took for Penn State to beat the Huskers after falling 0-2.

“In those moments, it's a reminder to me and my teammates that we stuck it out at Penn State,” he said. “Whether it be [that] “Our gym in preseason is 90 degrees, or we walk through the snow and come back at 3 a.m., we push ourselves.”

How would things be different from these teams' first meeting?

On September 3, Penn State swept Louisville, not only sweeping the Cardinals but losing only 47 points. Mruzik and Jurevicius combined for 24 kills. What has changed?

For the Cardinals, the gutsy five-set win against Northern Iowa in the second round of the tournament changed their energy. Kong talked about how that win solidified their connection and their growth after some “ugly losses” this season. They are playing with more common sense.

“I know they're a much better team than when we first played them in the preseason,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “I think we're a much better team than the first time in the preseason. It's going to be a battle.”

As for Penn State, the Nittany Lions look more cohesive than ever. There's a belief in them that they can come back from anything, and coming back from a 22-16 deficit in the fourth set against a team like Nebraska in the national semifinals can only add to that confidence. The Nittany Lions will have to win the serve-and-pass game and control the ball on their side of the court, Schumacher-Cawley said.