The No. 4 Louisville Cardinals volleyball team swept Auburn in their season opener, Friday, Aug. 29, in the Cardinal Classic. 

Freshman Kaylssa Blackshear showed out for the Cards in their first regular-season match of 2025, accumulating 11 kills. Along with Blackshear, returning senior Cara Cresse and junior transfer Chloe Chicoine also totaled 11 kills each at the end of the match. 

Set 1: Cards 25-21

Cresse showed her skill in set one, racking up 6 kills and 2 blocks. Payton Peterson, while only ending the match with 5 kills, showed immense confidence on the floor as a hitter in set 1, continuing her growth from the end of last season. Following Cresse is Chicoine, with 3 kills. 

In contrast to the Cards’ dominant start, Auburn was the first to 20; Louisville was struggling to come back after the Tigers’ runs in the latter end of the set, but Head Coach Dan Meske called a timeout, changing the momentum of the set and leading the Cards to take set 1.

Set 2: Cards 25-21

Set 2 was a battle; after the Cards’ dominance at the end of set 1 and the beginning of set 2, Auburn took charge in the middle of the set, challenging the Cards’ offense with 6 blocks compared to the Cards’ 1 block. Trailing 17-12, Head Coach Meske took a timeout; following the timeout, Louisville gained momentum from tooling the block time and time again. 

Shortly after, Louisville took the lead 23-20. To try to deter the Cards’ momentum, the Tigers’ head coach, Brent Crouch, challenged a Nayelis Cabello pancake but was unsuccessful. Louisville took set 2, leading the match 2-0. Chicoine led the set with 6 kills.

Set 3: Cards 25-21 

At the start of set 3, Louisville struggled to connect with the ball, leading to consecutive attacking errors. While Auburn did seem to find momentum, they were contributing attacking errors to the stat sheet as well.

Despite this, the Cards found their footing and were the first to get to 20. The Tigers’ attacking errors and net violations led to a match point for Louisville. Peterson got the final kill of the match, leading to the final set score of 25-21. 

The Louisville Cardinals Volleyball team will play again Sunday, August 31, at 3:00 P.M. to take on the Morehead State Eagles.

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Morgan Schmidt

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