Louisville University has never won an NCAA championship! So, their fans can’t be judged for being very excited as they get the chance to win their first one on December 22nd. The Cardinals also have the luxury of having finals in their home, which increases the significance of a potential victory.

Moreover, the final is also set to present the team’s coach, Dani Busboom Kelly, and their opponent’s coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley, with the opportunity to become the first female coach to win the NCAA title. A lot is on the line. Dani was asked about what all of this meant in a recent interview. She said that while it’s not completely engulfing her thoughts, the coach feels like she must do so to break the curse.

The Louisville coach said, “I don’t think any woman took a head coaching job thinking, like, I want to be the first, but when you have that opportunity, it’s like it becomes, How do you feel like you have to do it like somebody’s got to do it? The sport has to get the monkey off their back and show that women can do it.” Dani also spoke about how the fact that the teams in this final will be both coached by women takes the pressure off of this record, as it’s guaranteed to be broken regardless of the outcome.

She then continued, “It’s finally happening, so it’s really special. You know that this year it’s guaranteed, and you don’t also have that pressure going into the national championship game, like, I got to do this for all the women; it’s like it’s already been done now. We can just play. Yep, it’s happening, and we can play, and there’ll be many more after us.”

After this, the coach was asked, as a mother, how she would like to inspire other mothers around her. “I hope they realize that they can do it all; they can have careers; they can be moms; they can be great friends; they can have their dream job. Just that they can do it all, and they gotta surround themselves with great people.” Thus, it looks like the Louisville head coach is ready to gather her troops to face Penn State. Thus, it seems that a great game might await us.

Louisville’s outstanding performance against Pitt in the semis

No. 1 ranked Louisville University may not have been the biggest favorite to win the competition when it began. But their game against Pitt proves that they’ll be a huge problem for Penn State to overcome. The Cardinals dropped the first set in the semifinals, losing 21-25 through the courtesy of Olivia Babcock. Thus, the team knew that they had to win the second set.

This made the second set quite a competitive one, with neither team ready to give it up considering the momentum it would present. But Louisville eventually came through, winning by 25-23. However, Pitt threatened heavily to make a comeback in the third set as they took an early lead. But an incredible block by Anna DeBeer helped them prevent dropping the set and eventually winning 29-27 and taking the 2-1 lead.

The fourth set didn’t cause much problem for the side, as they ended up winning it 25-17 and booking the ticket to the finals. Going into the game, they looked like a very resilient side that wouldn’t drop their concentration and energy levels even for a second and would perform relentlessly. Thus, the game with the Nittany Lions is bound to be a battle.