The ball falls on Louisville’s side of the court and Texas is declared national champions for the fourth time in the program’s history. This was Louisville’s second season appearing in the final four, but they were no problem for the Longhorns, who swept them in three sets. 

On December 17th, the Texas Longhorns and Louisville Cardinals played each other for a national title, the game they had worked all season for. Louisville being the number one seed in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) and Texas being the number one seed in the Big 12 Conference. 

Madi Smith (26), who attended the game in Omaha, Nebraska said, “I wanted Louisville to win. Even though Texas won, it was still very cool to see both teams compete. You could tell that Texas wasn’t going to be beat no matter who was on the other side of the net. They weren’t letting anything touch the floor. It was inspiring to be able to watch the level of volleyball that I want to compete at one day.”

From the start, both teams came out strong. Louisville with back to back to back sweeps against Stanford, Purdue, and Baylor, then a five set win against Oregon got them into the semifinals. The Cardinals were victorious with another five set win against Pittsburgh in the semifinals. 

The Longhorns swept Fairleigh Dickinson and Georgia, then two four set wins against Marquette and Ohio State, leading them to the semifinals with another four set win against San Diego. 

Callie Moos (25) says, “I wanted Louisville to win the championship, I was sad because I have watched certain girls on that team for a while, but definitely think the Longhorns deserved to win.”

The Texas Longhorns ended the season 28-1, with a total of 1600 points and first place ranking in the D1 division. For the fourth time in the program’s history the Longhorns are declared national champions.