LOUISVILLE, Ky. – What's remarkable is that two women will probably be training for the national championship and one will win a title for the primary time within the 44 years of NCAA women's volleyball. It's notable that these two women, Katie Schumacher-Cawley and Dani Busboom Kelly, do it.
Because they’re the best representatives.
In that historic moment, Schumacher-Cawley at Penn State and Louisville's Busboom Kelly in front of a sold-out KFC Yum! compete against one another. Center and a national ABC audience on Sunday at 3 p.m., they embody what it takes to rise to the highest in a male-dominated industry.
Eighteen of the 20 winningest coaches in Division I women's volleyball history are men.
“It will be great for the sport to get rid of this crap and move on where it's not historic for a woman to win,” said Busboom Kelly, 39, in her eighth season and second time within the National Championship game with the Cardinals. “It’s just a normal thing.”
Penn State (34-2) and Louisville (30-5) reflect the drive and resilience of their coaches. On Thursday, they won national semifinal games against Nebraska and Pittsburgh in dramatic fashion.
Schumacher-Cawley and Busboom Kelly each trained with a gentle hand. They fostered confidence from the sidelines as their teams engineered comebacks against opponents ranked first and second within the nation in talent, depth and championship-level experience.
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Penn State and Louisville meet for the national title in women's volleyball
The Nittany Lions pulled off a five-set reverse sweep and fought off two match points for Nebraska within the fourth set.
At the beginning of the decisive fifth set, junior libero Gillian Grimes heard a relaxing voice within the Penn State huddle: “We were made for this.” The sentence didn’t come from Schumacher-Cawley. But she is the explanation it was spoken.
Louisville's players have been under pressure all season to secure a spot within the Final Four at home. As the stress mounted as Pitt won the primary set and took the lead within the second, Busboom Kelly implored the Cardinals to keep up their composure.
“This will start to work,” she said.
Without star attacker Anna DeBeer, the senior suffered a two-point injury within the fourth set and overwhelmed Pitt after converting three set points for the Panthers within the third set.
In short, Penn State and Louisville refused to go away. They kept making big fluctuations. They played to win.
“We’re not talking about ever losing,” Penn State outside hitter Jess Mruzik. “We never count ourselves out, no matter the size of the deficit we face.”
In the games played in front of an NCAA postseason record crowd of 21,726, Penn State and Louisville were the tougher teams.
Is that a surprise given the coaches?
“Women are tough,” said Nebraska coach John Cook, who has won 4 national championships. “And they’re both really tough. Think of them as players. They both won national championships, so that's no coincidence. These guys are winners. They are great competitors. And their teams play like that.”
Schumacher-Cawley, 44, is a Chicago tough guy. She grew up in the town and starred in multiple sports at Mother McAuley High. She played at Penn State, earning two All-America honors and winning a national championship for coach Russ Rose in 1999, the varsity's first in women's volleyball.
Rose won six more titles. He is the all-time leader in championships and wins amongst Division I coaches. In 2008, Schumacher-Cawley was inducted into the Chicagoland Hall of Fame in a category alongside Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers and Andre Dawson.
She led this system for eight seasons at Illinois-Chicago and returned to Penn State to work for Rose in 2018 — 4 years after the Nittany Lions' last Final Four appearance until last week.
Schumacher Cawley took over when Rose retired in 2022.
“After Russ Rose, to get the team back to the Final Four in just three years,” Busboom Kelly said, “regardless of being a man or a woman, that’s an amazing accomplishment.”
At the beginning of her third season this fall, Schumacher-Cawley announced a stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis and commenced chemotherapy. She lost her hair but never missed a practice together with her team.
“We obviously want to do this for her because she's been so great all season,” said Mruzik, who had a team-best 26 kills against Nebraska. “So this tough five-set win helped lay another foundation for the structure we want to build this season.”
Schumacher-Cawley deflects questions on her health and gender issues in coaching.
“I’m just really excited to represent Penn State,” she said.
Maybe, she said, you'll realize the magnitude of two women on the bench, each calling the shots on the sphere with a trophy, once they step out from under the lights on Sunday.
“I’m proud of this team,” said Schumacher-Cauley. “I think I said that every day. I’m proud of their fight.”
The fight goes beyond volleyball.
Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly was the 2021 AVCA National Coach of the Year. (Sam Upshaw Jr. / Courier Journal / USA Today via Imagn Images)
When Busboom Kelly took over Louisville in 2017, she doubled the Cardinals' win total in a season from 12 to 24.
In 2019, Louisville reached the round of eight for the primary time. In 2021, Busboom Kelly was named National Coach of the Year because the Cardinals went undefeated until the Final Four, losing to Wisconsin in five sets. A 12 months later, Texas defeated Louisville for the national championship.
“She engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in any college volleyball program,” Cook said.
Busboom Kelly played for Cook at Nebraska from 2003 to 2006. He recruited her on a farm near Cortland Neb. She was a multi-sport star at tiny Adams Freeman High School.
In college, she switched from setter to libero and, together with future Olympians Jordan Larson and Sarah Pavan, helped the Huskers to a national championship in 2006. In 2015, she won one other title with Cook and the Huskers as an assistant coach.
A 12 months later she took over Louisville.
“I hope people appreciate what she’s done here,” Cook said.
Louisville fans appreciate Busboom Kelly due to reception she and the Cardinals received on Thursday.
“I think the last time I was on the mic talking about Dani, I called her tough,” Louisville middle blocker Phekran Kong said Friday on the championship preview press conference. “So I’m going to double that. Because she’s real.”
In the fourth set Thursday, middle blocker Cara Cresse Busboom promised Kelly she would deliver two blocks after DeBeer left with an injury that might keep the senior All-American out of the championship game.
Cress produced. The momentum turned. The Panthers fell apart late in the sport. Even sophomore opponent Olivia Babcock, who was named national player of the 12 months on Friday, felt the pressure. The cardinals accepted it.
“This is for all the people who doubted us,” Louisville outside hitter Charitie Luper said.
Her coach looked on and smiled.
More than simply breaking a glass ceiling, Busbom Kelly said Sunday she's excited that a lady will probably be coaching her team to the national championship so athletic directors and future players who might grow to be coaches understand it's possible.
“It’s more about being really proud of being able to be role models,” she said, “and hopefully breaking new ground.”
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