LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Penn State women’s volleyball team won a historic national semifinal game on Thursday, making even more history. Sunday: For the first time since the sport’s NCAA Tournament began in 1981, a woman will win the head coaching title.

That’s guaranteed because both teams in Sunday’s finale (ABC, 3 p.m. ET) are coached by women. Penn State is led by Katie Schumacher-Cawley, while their championship round opponent, Louisville, is led by Dani Busboom Kelly. Both women won NCAA titles as players – Schumacher-Cawley with Penn State in 1999 and Busboom Kelly with Nebraska in 2006.

“I think we’ve heard this a lot: the first time a woman does this or that,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “But I’m happy for this team. I think Dani is an exceptional coach and I’m excited that we can both compete at this level.”

It was an emotional year for the Nittany Lions, with Schumacher-Cawley training despite being diagnosed with breast cancer in September. The Nittany Lions say they were inspired by her.

Penn State is seeking the program’s eighth national title – seven were achieved under former coach Russ Rose, who is retired – and Louisville will be seeking its first title. A win for the Cardinals would also be their first ACC title.

Nebraska coach John Cook, despite his disappointment over not making the Finals, called it a “bright spot” that either Busboom Kelly or Schumacher-Cawley would win a head coaching title. Cook coached Busboom Kelly as a player and she was his assistant at Nebraska before taking the Louisville job in 2017. She has reached the NCAA Tournament every season with the Cardinals, and this will be her second NCAA Finals appearance.

“There are two great stories you can write about,” Cook said. “Women are tough, and these two are… I mean, think of them as players. They were both great players.”

It appeared as if Busboom Kelly, whose Cardinals won the first semifinal 3-1 against Pitt, would be playing her alma’s game in the final as Nebraska took a 2-0 lead against the Nittany Lions in Thursday’s second game.

But then Penn State pulled off an epic comeback, becoming just the sixth team to pull off a reverse sweep in the final four sets, winning the final three sets after losing the first two. The Nittany Lions are the only organization to do this twice; In 2009, they also managed to win the championship game against Texas.

Nebraska was the last team to do this, against Illinois in the 2018 semifinals. But on Thursday, the stunned Huskers lost only their second NCAA Tournament game in a round after winning the first two sets. They are now 104-2 in this situation.

The game between Penn State and Nebraska ended after midnight and ended with the Nittany Lions winning the fifth set 15-13. Jess Mruzik led Penn State with 26 kills and Cook called it one of the best performances he’s ever seen from an underdog.

The opening game of the night saw Louisville wow the crowd at the KFC Yum Center in downtown Louisville. The Cardinals played with the pressure of wanting to reach the quarterfinals in their hometown. Now the Cardinals have made it to the final game of the season.

Pitt had beaten the Cardinals twice in ACC play during the regular season, but Louisville won the game that mattered most.

“That pressure is crushing, and there have been moments this season where we’ve been suffocated,” Busboom Kelly said of the Cardinals’ desire to reach the final four. “But this team has really surpassed that, and we had to put in a lot of work and have a lot of honest conversations about what it would take to overcome that.”

Then on Thursday, the Cardinals had to overcome several other things: The Panthers won the first set, trailed Pitt at the start of the second set, suffered four set points in the third set and lost standout senior Anna DeBeer to an ankle injury early in the fourth Sentence.

Louisville prevailed in the standings, leaving Pitt struggling to finish in the national semifinals for the fourth straight year. Pitt also lost to Louisville in the 2022 national semifinals. The Panthers’ only loss this season before Thursday was 3-2 at SMU in October. Olivia Babcock had 33 kills to lead Pitt, which finished the season 33-2.

“We’re feeling bad,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said. “This is one of the hardest losses of my career. It definitely feels like a missed opportunity.”

The Panthers and Cardinals have emerged as the ACC’s strongest programs in recent years, although Stanford and Cal, which joined the league this year, brought much prestige to volleyball. Stanford has won a record nine NCAA titles and Cal has made it to the final four.

Pitt won regular season games against Louisville 3-2 in Pittsburgh on October 25th and 3-1 in Louisville on November 27th. The Cardinals were the fourth No. 1 seed — behind Pitt, Nebraska and Penn State. – and were nearly eliminated by Northern Iowa in the second round in one of the most intense games of the NCAA Tournament. But Louisville prevailed against UNI 22:20 in the fifth set with nine match points.

The Cardinals defeated Purdue and defeated Stanford 3-1 to reach the Final Four for the third time. On Thursday, they were led by DeBeer, Charitie Luper and Sofia Maldonado Diaz, who each had 14 kills.

When DeBeer left with an ankle injury and the Cardinals led 2-0 in the fourth set, freshman Payton Petersen came in and helped the Cardinals win with two kills and four key digs. Petersen’s mother, Bobbi, coaches Northern Iowa and her twin sister, Jadyn, plays for UNI. So it was already an emotional tournament for Payton after he beat them.

“It just felt weird,” Petersen said of facing her mother and sister in an NCAA tournament game, adding that Northern Iowa’s heavy pressure on Louisville ultimately helped the Cardinals improve their game for the to improve the rest of the tournament.

When DeBeer initially went under on Thursday, Petersen assumed she could shake it off and return. When it became clear she wouldn’t be able to do that, Petersen said, “I wanted to do this for her. She meant so much to me.”

As for DeBeer, Busboom Kelly said in an interview on the ESPN broadcast immediately after the game that the outside hitter would be back for Sunday’s finale. But in the postgame press conference, she softened that.

“If there’s an inkling that she can play, she’s the type of kid that’s going to go out and play,” Busboom Kelly said of DeBeer. “But we won’t know more until tomorrow.”