LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Anna DeBeer takes off her right shoe as tears stream down her face. The fifth-year forward from Louisville fixes her gaze on the floor as she sits in front of her locker at the KFC Yum! Center. He moves his shoe away from his sprained right ankle and takes off his white socks. She raises her head. A group of reporters surround her, some with cameras, others with gray microphones and some with their phones. He tries to smile, but his lips tremble. Tears fall freely from her eyes. He wipes them with the sleeves of his black sweater, but that doesn't stop the flow.
“It seemed like all the stars were aligning for such a perfect game at Louisville, ending my career,” DeBeer says. “It was so close.”
Minutes later, Jess Mruzik, Penn State's fifth-year attacker, enters the press conference a few feet from Louisville's locker room, flashing a smile. She holds a trophy and part of the volleyball net hangs from her shoulder. He wears a gray hat with the words “national champions” written in blue. He sits next to his companions and whispers something to them. Everyone laughs.
Head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley looks at the stat sheet and gasps. You just noticed that Mruzik swung 73 in the NCAA volleyball national championship match on Sunday. “Seventy-three! That's a lot,” he says far from the microphone, but it picks up his voice. Mruzik nods at his coach and smiles shyly.
“If you had told me three years ago that I was going to be a national champion at the end of my career, I would have told you that you were crazy,” Mruzik says. “Because three years ago I wasn't even in the tournament.”
Thus unfolded the story of two NCAA volleyball stars who wore their teams' jerseys for the last time. Before a record crowd of 21,860, Jess Mruzik led Penn State to its first national championship in 10 years by hitting ball after ball down the court. Anna DeBeer tried to lead her team to its first national championship by giving all the energy she could from the bench. Mruzik had 29 kills. DeBeer couldn't make a single hit. Penn State won its eighth championship. Louisville still doesn't have any.
Anna DeBeer made the decision to return to Louisville for her fifth year for many reasons. The most important? He wanted to win a national championship in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. She wanted that storybook to end her decorated career.
In his sophomore season in 2021, the 6-foot DeBeer helped Louisville reach the elite eight for the first time in program history. He returned the following season and improved his performance, leading the Cardinals to their first championship game, where they lost to Texas. Last year, the Cardinals led two sets to none in the regional final against ACC rival Pitt, but Pitt rallied and eliminated the Cards.
In 2024, the Cardinals struggled to start the season, losing to Penn State and Nebraska in the first month. DeBeer told his teammates that he believed in them and energized them during team meetings. The team merged as the season progressed. When the No. 1 seed Cardinals were pushed to within 20-20 in the fifth set against Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament, DeBeer was the team's cornerstone. She recorded her 12th double-double of the season in her five-set victory. After that scare, he burst into tears, jumped high and hard, and hit the ball with every ounce of energy he had. The Cardinals were peaking at the right time and DeBeer was the driving force behind them.
That all came to an abrupt halt in the fourth set of the national semifinals against overall No. 1 seed Pittsburgh. Up two sets to one and leading 2-0, DeBeer attempted to block center back Phekran Kong. They went down together. But DeBeer's right foot landed on Kong's left heel. He twisted his ankle sideways and rolled onto his belly. She was lying on the court for 44 seconds. Even before she was helped off the court, DeBeer knew something was seriously wrong.
“I knew right when it happened that it was probably over,” DeBeer said Sunday.
But she held on to hope. He put ice on it. He elevated it. Put ice back on it. But there wasn't enough time. Due to his long-term health and professional career, the coaching staff decided he would not play. When he went to bed Saturday night and fell into an uncomfortable sleep, he knew his role was going to be different for the Cardinals.
So he showed up to the championship game in a black T-shirt, limping toward the sideline. He didn't join his team for warmups, but was with head coach Dani Busboom Kelly the entire time. When the game started, she stood courtside. Sometimes he leaned forward, palms on his thighs, shouting instructions to Payton Petersen, who was his replacement, and Charitie Luper. He punched his fists in the air and shouted “Let's go!” every time Luper killed in one fell swoop. After Louisville lost the first set, he rallied his team and told them he believed in them and to keep their energy high. Busboom Kelly stood aside and watched.
DeBeer became more encouraged in the second set as Louisville rallied after being down 24-19. He slapped his teammates' palms and screamed every time they avoided a set point. When Louisville won 32-30 after saving 10 set points, he smiled (perhaps the only time he did all day) and almost walked onto the court.
But the Cardinals couldn't keep the momentum going without their star. Petersen, who rose to the occasion in the fourth and fifth sets against Pittsburgh, gamely tried to fill DeBeer's absence, serving up three aces. “The way Payton Petersen, as a freshman, took on such a difficult role makes me very proud,” DeBeer said. But it wasn't enough.
DeBeer covered his mouth with his palms after Mruzik hit his 29th kill of the match to give Penn State a 20-13 lead in the fourth set. DeBeer knew there was no turning back.
As the confetti fell after Penn State's victory, DeBeer hugged his teammates. She tried to hold back her tears, but she couldn't. He let them fall down his face. His career as a cardinal was over.
“I would have done anything to be there,” DeBeer said. “That's the hardest part.”
Tears streamed down Jess Mruzik's face as she hugged her teammates. He shook his teammates' shoulders. They had done it. Finally national champions. During her on-court interview with coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, she wiped confetti off Schumacher-Cawley's head, laughing through her tears.
Mruzik, from Livonia, Michigan, played the first three years of his career for the Wolverines. She shined for Michigan, making the Big Ten freshman team in 2020, the AVCA North Region team as a sophomore, and the AVCA North Region team in her junior season. But after a disappointing 17-13 season in which Michigan failed to reach the NCAA tournament, Mruzik entered the transfer portal. Schumacher-Cawley pounced on her and offered her a spot on the Penn State team.
Mruzik knew immediately that the bar was high. Penn State was a seven-time national champion. Then he got to work. He helped the Nittany Lions reach the regional semifinals in 2023, starting all 32 games and recording 519 kills, before the Nittany Lions fell to Wisconsin.
When he decided to return to campus this year, he had one goal: win the national championship.
In September, at the beginning of the season, she heard information that would solidify her belief that her volleyball journey was about more than just the sport: Coach Schumacher-Cawley announced to the team that she had been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She knew her coach wouldn't want the attention to be on her, so Mruzik would sometimes answer questions for her and show up to practice every day to live up to the motto they had chosen at the beginning of the year: Bigger than us.
Mruzik had the best season of his career. In 37 games, he recorded double-digit kills in all but five. In the national semifinals against Nebraska, after losing two sets to none, he lifted his team. He hit the ball 70 times, willing his team to back down. The Nittany Lions won the fifth set 15-13 and headed to the championship match for the first time in 10 years thanks to Mruzik.
In the championship game, as DeBeer watched from the sidelines, sometimes with an intense urge to take the court, Mruzik took 73 swings. Her 29 kills tied her season and career record.
Moments before Mruzik walked to the front of the presentation ceremony to lift the 2024 national championship trophy with Schumacher-Cawley and her teammates, she was named the most outstanding player of the final four. He jumped up and down, holding the trophy and smiling.
A few minutes before that, DeBeer limped off the court, high-fiving fans on his way back to the locker room.
“I know she's a great competitor and seeing her fall in the semifinal, I felt sick to my stomach,” Mruzik said. “Because I know that if I could play, I definitely would, even if I could barely walk.”
