In the history of the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball championships, there has never been a woman head coach crowned as a champion. A breakthrough is possible this year at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, and it might be accomplished by Louisville’s own in its host city.
When the NCAA announced in 2020 that Louisville would be the site for the 2024 championship, University of Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly took note.
“It’s been circled on our calendar for a long time, once it got announced,” acknowledged Busboom Kelly two years ago when the Cardinals reached their first NCAA title match. “It’s like, ‘Man, will we even have a chance to get there?’”
They did.
The fourth-ranked Cardinals (29-5) answered her question after last weekend’s regional final win over Stanford. During the three weekends of this year’s NCAA tournament, the Cardinals have never left town. They earned the right to stay home as one of the top four seeds in the tournament.
The Cards are hoping to reverse what happened two years ago when the University of Texas swept them in the title match. The Longhorns wound up winning the first of back-to-back championships.
And since 2022, there’s been ongoing discussion about when a woman head coach would win the NCAA women’s volleyball championship. It’s a topic Busboom Kelly previously shied away from discussing.
“That’s gotta change,” said Busboom Kelly, when describing the reason for a change of heart in ‘22, “I think having a kid and doing this again and being able to be successful with a child, it means a lot to me.”
After missing out on the Final Four last year, the Cardinals are back and knocking on the door.
Cardinals outside hitter Anna DeBeer, from Assumption High School and a part of all three of U of L’s Final Four appearances, likes the idea of making an impact on Cardinals women’s volleyball history and helping her head coach to possibly make NCAA history.
“Just to have a female coach have a chance, she’s just been great where she has taken the program the last four years,” DeBeer said at the KFC Yum! Center Wednesday. “I know it was a big thing for her being a mother and a coach.”
Busboom Kelly said the most important aspect of being a successful women’s head coach is maintaining the balance between her profession and her growing family. Busboom Kelly and her husband, Lane Kelly, are raising a young son named Boone.
“If I need to leave earlier than usual, or if I have to give more load to my assistants, they (the players) understand and they are supportive of that,” Busboom Kelly said when asked about it two years ago.
“There’s plenty of love and time for these teams and my family.”
The other female head coach in the semifinals is Penn State’s Katie Schumaker-Cawley, who was also diagnosed last October for stage two breast cancer. The Nittany Lions play the University of Nebraska in the second semifinal Thursday at 9:00 p.m.
Knowing that she’s not alone, Busboom Kelly said Wednesday, “We’re getting closer, right?”
In a year with women gaining higher profiles in sports, such as Caitlin Clark in basketball and in soccer with Racing Louisville’s Savannah DeMelo, it just might be the year for a women’s volleyball coach to also break a barrier.
The Cardinals play the Pitt Panthers Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center.
