LOUISVILLE, Ky. — What’s notable isn’t the fact that two women are coaching at national championships and one is the first in 44 years of NCAA women’s volleyball. It’s amazing that these women, Katie Schumacher-Cawley and Dani Busboom Kelly, are two people.
Because they are ideal representatives.
In this historic moment, Penn State’s Schumacher-Cawley vs. Louisville’s Busboom Kelly game was held at a sold-out KFC Yum! Center and national ABC viewers on Sundays at 3pm, it embodies what it takes to rise to the top in a male-dominated industry.
Of the 20 winningest coaches in Division I women’s volleyball history, 18 are men.
“It would be a really great thing for the sport to kick this monkey and get out of here, where it’s not historic for a woman to win,” said Busboom Kelly, 39, who is in her eighth season and making her second trip to the nationals. . Championship game against the Cardinals. “It’s just a common occurrence.”
Penn State (34-2) and Louisville (30-5) reflect the drive and resilience of their coaches. They won their national semifinals in dramatic fashion Thursday over Nebraska and Pittsburgh, respectively.
Schumacher-Cawley and Busboom Kelly both coached with steady hands. They grew in confidence on the sideline as the team made a comeback against opponents considered No. 1 and No. 2 in the country in talent, depth and championship-level experience.
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Penn State and Louisville set to face off against national women’s volleyball teams
The Nittany Lions pulled off a five-set comeback and held two match points against Nebraska in the fourth set.
At the start of the decisive fifth set, junior libero Gillian Grimes heard the reassurance in her Penn State team’s voice: “We were built for this.” This phrase does not come from Schumacher-Cawley. But that’s why she said it.
Louisville players have faced pressure all season to secure a spot in the Final Four at home. As stress mounted after Pitt won the opening set and took the lead in the second, Busboom Kelly implored the Cardinals to keep their composure.
“Now it will have an effect,” she said.
The senior, who was without star forward Anna DeBeer, suffered a two-point injury in the fourth set and then overturned a three-point set point for the Panthers in the third before putting Pitt away.
Simply put, Penn State and Louisville refused to leave. They kept taking big swings. They played to win.
“We never talk about losing,” Penn State outside hitter Jess Mruzik said. “No matter how big a deficit we face, we never neglect ourselves.”
In a game played in front of an NCAA postseason record crowd of 21,726, Penn State and Louisville were the tougher teams.
Is this surprising considering the coaches?
“The girls are tough,” said Nebraska coach John Cook, who has won four national championships. “And those two are really hard. Look at them as players. This is no coincidence, as they both won national championships. These people are winners. They are great competitors. And their team plays like that.”
Schumacher-Cawley, 44, is a tough brand from Chicago. She grew up in the city and starred in a variety of sports at Mother McAuley High. She played at Penn State, earning All-America honors twice and winning the school’s first women’s volleyball national championship in 1999 for coach Russ Rose.
Rose went on to win six more titles. He is the all-time leader in championships and wins among Division I coaches. In 2008, Schumacher-Cawley was inducted into the Chicagoland Hall of Fame along with Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers and Andre Dawson.
She ran the program at Illinois-Chicago for eight seasons and returned to Penn State in 2018 to work for Rose. Until last week, it had been four years since the Nittany Lions’ most recent Final Four appearance.
Schumacher Cawley took over when Rose retired in 2022.
“Getting the team back to the Final Four just three years after Russ Rose is an incredible accomplishment,” said Busboom Kelly.
Early in the third season this fall, Schumacher-Cawley was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and began chemotherapy. Even though she lost her hair, she didn’t miss practice with the team.
“We definitely want to do this for her because she’s been really amazing this whole season,” said Mruzik, who tied her all-time career high with 26 kills against Nebraska. “So that tough fifth-set win helped put another brick in the works that we’re trying to build this season.”
Schumacher-Cawley deflects questions about her health and gender issues in coaching.
“I’m really excited to represent Penn State,” she said.
Maybe, she said, the greatness of the two women sitting on the court holding the trophy and sitting on the bench under the Sunday lights will seep in.
“I’m proud of this team,” Schumacher-Cauley said. “I think I said that every day. “I’m proud of their fight,” he said.
The fight goes beyond volleyball.
Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly has been named the 2021 AVCA National Coach of the Year. (Sam Upshaw Jr. / Courier Journal / USA Today via Imagn Images)
When Busboom Kelly took over at Louisville in 2017, she doubled the Cardinals’ win total from 12 to 24 in one season.
In 2019, Louisville advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time. In 2021, Busboom Kelly was named national coach of the year as the Cardinals went undefeated all the way to the Final Four, losing in five sets against Wisconsin. A year later, Texas beat Louisville in the national championship.
“She led one of the biggest transformations in a college volleyball program,” Cook said.
Busboom Kelly played for Cook at Nebraska from 2003-2006. He recruited her from his farm near Cortland Neb. She was a multi-sport star at tiny Adams Freeman High School.
In college, she moved from setter to libero and helped the Huskers win the 2006 national championship alongside future Olympians Jordan Larson and Sara Pavan. She won another title with Cook and the Huskers in 2015 as an assistant coach.
A year later, she took over Louisville.
“I hope people appreciate what she’s done here,” Cook said.
Louisville fans hold Busboom Kelly in high regard based on the reception she and the Cardinals received Thursday.
“The last time I got on the mic and talked about Dani, I called her a bitch,” Louisville middle blocker Phekran Kong said during a press conference to preview Friday’s championship. “So I’m going to double down on that. Because she is legit.”
In the fourth set Thursday, middle blocker Cara Cresse promised to deliver two blocks to Busboom Kelly after DeBeer suffered an injury that forced the All-American senior to sit out the championship game.
Cresse production. The momentum has flipped. The Panthers fell apart late in the game. Even sophomore opposing hitter Olivia Babcock, who was named national player of the year on Friday, felt the pressure. The Cardinals accepted this.
“This is for everyone who doubted us,” said Louisville outside hitter Charity Looper.
Her coach looked at this and smiled.
Busbom Kelly said on Sunday that rather than shattering a glass ceiling, she’s excited to have a woman coach her team to a national championship so that athletic directors and future athletes involved in coaching understand it’s possible.
“I’m really proud that we can be role models and hopefully blaze a new trail,” she said.
(Top photo by Schumacher-Cawley: Dan Rainville / USA Today via Imagn Images
