With confetti falling on Penn State’s celebration Sunday afternoon, Anna DeBeer lifted her left arm to rub tears from her eyes.
The Louisville star had not played in the NCAA Division I volleyball championship match, sidelined by an ankle injury she suffered in Thursday’s semifinal upset of Pittsburgh. DeBeer had invoked a Covid eligibility extension to play a fifth season for her hometown Cardinals, motivated in part by the big process that brought the tournament’s final rounds to the KFC Yum Center, but now that moment had passed and agonizingly.
“It just seemed like all the stars were aligning for such a perfect game in Louisville, finishing my career, and we worked so fricking hard all year to get where we are,” she said. “And it was just so close.”
With its leading scorer reduced to a spectator, Louisville lost a four-set title match to the Nittany Lions, 25-23, 32-34, 25-20, 25-17. It was the second time in three years U of L had reached the NCAA championship match only to end its season in disappointment. This time, though, the wound was deeper because the Cardinals were playing short-handed and were not as obviously outclassed as they had been while being swept by Texas two years earlier.
“I think it’s emotional when you have a player like Anna out,” Louisville coach Danio Busboom Kelly said. “Everybody in this building knows that that outcome, it might not be different, but it would have been a different match. She sacrificed a lot, and to see this game taken away from her was really tough.”
Despite growing evidence DeBeer would not play, Louisville had been favored by the bookmakers at Draftkings prior to Sunday’s match, and by a significant moneyline margin (-250 to Penn State’s +190). DeBeer would say afterward that “things happen for a reason,” and that “God has a plan,” but she didn’t sound altogether convinced as tears continued to trickle down her face nearly half an hour after the match.
“I can push through a lot,” DeBeer said, sitting surrounded by reporters in the cramped Cardinals’ dressing room. “I’ve had some tough injuries and I’ll play through anything, but I knew right when it happened (Thursday) that I was probably done.”
“I really feel for her,” said Penn State star Jess Mruzik. “I know she’s an ultimate competitor and to see her go down in the semifinal, like I was sick to my stomach because I know that if she could play, she definitely would. She definitely would even if she could barely walk.”
DeBeer declined to detail the extent of her injuries – whether she had simply suffered a high ankle sprain or had incurred additional ligament damage – but said treatment with ice and elevation had not made playing possible. When she left the dressing room less than an hour before the match, it was with a noticeable limp.
“For the long term, my future pro career, it wasn’t really worth risking it if I wasn’t going to be able to be 100 percent, to give it my all for this team,” she said. “I’d much rather have someone who can give it their all out there than me being out there and not being able to do what I know I can do. . .
“I’m just extremely grateful to be here. It’s so hard to do what we just did. We could have been knocked out two weeks ago (by Northern Iowa). It could have been a lot different. (But) Second place is like almost the worst because you’re so close and all the emotions get higher and higher as you go on with the year and continue to win in the tournament.”
Louisville’s emotions probably peaked during Sunday’s second set while rallying from a 17-10 deficit and fighting off 10 set points en route to a 34-32 victory. Senior Charitie Luper recorded nine of her season-best 21 kills in the second set alone and freshman Payton Petersen, playing in DeBeer’s place, contributed three service aces during the Cardinals’ comeback.
But while winning that set squared the match at one set apiece, it seemed like a last gasp in retrospect. Penn State would yield the first point of the third set on an attacking error, but never trailed thereafter. The same Louisville team that recorded a .282 hitting percentage in the second set fell to .143 in the third and .189 in the fourth.
“I really didn’t feel like (the second set) took a lot out of our team,” Busboom Kelly said. “I felt like, when we went in the locker room (after the set), we have hope now that we can do this, and we feel like we can. . .I thought it gave us momentum. Unfortunately, that didn’t show on the scoreboard.”
Could a healthy Anna DeBeer have made the difference? Louisville will always wonder.
This article appears in Dec 18, 2024 – Jan 16, 2025.