No. 3 Louisville vs. No. 9 Stanford volleyball: Score, live updates (2024)

Another point-for-point set that Louisville came out on top of ... The Cardinals closed it out with a 27-25 win in set two to take a 2-0 lead on the match. There were 13 ties in the second set, but just three lead changes as the Cardinals maintained a one or two point lead for the majority of the set. Stanford pushed hard at the end, tying it up multiple times and fighting off multiple set points, but Louisville got it done. Claire Chaussee is having a great match for Louisville ¸— up to 11 kills on .429 hitting. Louisville is slightly outhitting the Cardinal .215 to .189.

Louisville held a lead late into the match, but Stanford was right there with them. The Cardinals were the first to 20 as Chaussee sent one down the line to take a 20-18 advantage. Stanford got within one on a Louisville service error and then attacking error before Dani Busboom-Kelley called a timeout. Out of the timeout, the two teams exchanged points before Elia Rubin put up a huge stuff block to tie it up at 23-all. The two teams exchanged two more ties before Chaussee hammered down back-to-back kills for the Cardinals to take a 2-0 lead. When Louisville is in-system, they are hard to stop — especially when Chaussee gets the ball.

Aiko Jones is having an incredible night as well, with seven kills and five blocks. The Stanford Cardinal will need to clean up some errors moving forward and garner some energy and unity in the late moments if they want to pull off the reverse sweep. They will now face a must-win third set.

.@aikojonesja doing it all tonight 👏

💻: https://t.co/RNwDoHeMca#GoCards pic.twitter.com/UC02JLrwtU

— Louisville Volleyball (@LouisvilleVB) September 18, 2022

We had quite an even first set. After going point-for-point, the Louisville Cardinals pulled out the win late in the first set, 26-24 to take a 1-0 lead on the match. Claire Chaussee led with four kills on .300 hitting, followed by Aiko Jones with three kills at a .600 clip. The Cards hit .184 as a team to Stanford's .156. They also tallied six blocks in the first set as the Cardinal racked up 10 attacking errors.

Kendall Kipp led the way for the Cardinal with six kills at a .308 clip.

When it got down to crunch time, Chaussee hammered down two in a row to give the Cardinals a 23-20 lead. Elia Rubin, the standout Stanford freshman answered back with two of her own to get the Cardinal within one before Aiko Jones gave Louisville set point. Stanford proceeded to tie it up at 24 — this team has been so good at crucial moments. Out of a late timeout, Louisville came up with two huge blocks to take the first set.

.@clairechaussee9 with a rocket 🚀

💻: https://t.co/RNwDoHeMca#GoCards pic.twitter.com/QX8LCGCHoM

— Louisville Volleyball (@LouisvilleVB) September 18, 2022

The Cards have another top matchup against the Stanford Cardinal, and it's a late one over on the east coast with a 10 p.m. ET start time. Louisville took down Kentucky in five sets earlier in the week. Stanford, on the other hand, has taken down two top-three teams (then-No. 3 Minnesota, and No. 2 Nebraska). Now, they have a shot at a third-straight top-three win, with No.3 Louisville.

Out of all the matchups this week, I think I am most looking forward to seeing the outcome of this one. Stanford has just broken back into the top 10 after years of battling to get back to the top of college volleyball. This is truly a top-10 battle — the kind where you have no idea what the outcome will be. Of course, Louisville has the higher seed and is probably the favorite going in, but the Cardinal have something to prove. Plus, they are fresh off of a huge upset over Nebraska, and they are rolling. Both teams are in the midst of tough weeks, and we will get a glimpse of how they handle tough matchups with quick turnarounds. Get ready to stay awake for a good one on Saturday night.

The Cardinal pulled off the upset over No. 2 Nebraska for its fifth straight victory over the Huskers. Stanford has now taken down a top-three team twice in a row after its victory over then-No. 3 Minnesota. Stanford won the fourth set in a thrilling fashion, withstanding a huge Nebraska momentum shift to take the set 27-25.

The match wasn't necessarily pretty. The Cardinal had a whopping 44 errors, including 23 service errors. That is almost two sets worth of points that they handed over to Nebraska, and they STILL won the match. Kendall Kipp ended up leading all hitters with 15 kills on .244 hitting after a very slow start to the match. Elia Rubin followed with 13 kills and Caitie Baird added 10 for the Cardinal.

The Huskers put together an incredible comeback effort, taking the third set and then rallying deep in the fourth set. They cleaned up their game and had some more options offensively with Lindsay Krause amping up her game. But ultimately the Cardinal still got it done.

Stanford's 23rd service error of the match tied the fourth set up at 18. The Huskers and Cardinal alternated a few points before Bekka Allick put up a block that absolutely erupted the stadium. Stanford earned match point nonetheless, and John Cook called a timeout to settle his team before the point. Krause took a big swing out of the timeout to keep the Huskers alive, and then she gave Nebraska set point, tooling one off the block to take a 25-24 lead. Krause had just one kill in the first set, but worked her way up to nine in the back half of this match when her team needed her.

Kipp came out of the Stanford timeout and perfectly placed a tip in to tie it up again. Star-Stanford freshman Elia Rubin hammered one across the net to give Stanford yet another match point, and Kipp finished it off.