By RUSS BROWN, Kentucky Today • Photos by: UofL Athletics
By any standard, Anna DeBeer’s All-American volleyball career as an outside hitter at the University of Louisville has been wildly successful, featuring back-to-back Final Fours in 2021-22, the championship match in ‘22, and a trophy case full of individual awards and honors. She’s a cinch to be elected to the UofL Athletic Hall of Fame on the first ballot and to be inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame at some point.
So when she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a minor in psychology last spring, instead of returning for a fifth year of eligibility, she could have easily left school for a professional career and felt satisfied with her accomplishments. But that wasn’t going to happen; not with the NCAA Final Four to be played in the former Assumption High School star’s hometown and the third-ranked Cardinals being one of the favorites to advance to the big show Dec. 19-22 in the KFC Yum! Center. So, she returned to UofL to help her team reach that goal while working on her master’s in business administration.
“I want it to end with a big bang,” DeBeer said.
There were other factors too. The 2020 tournament had been canceled due to the Covid pandemic, and a knee injury forced her to miss a significant portion of the 2022 season.
“I felt like I hadn’t had a normal college career, a good, healthy year, so there were a lot of things that went into my decision,” DeBeer said. “I couldn’t see myself not taking advantage of that opportunity. This is such a great program; I couldn’t pass that up. I’m extremely grateful to have an extra year. I couldn’t turn down another chance to play with this team. It’s cool being here.”
However, this season didn’t start like DeBeer had planned. She got off to a slow start that she blamed on not being quite in sync mentally and had to consult the team sports psychologist for help in overcoming the problem.
“I got off to a rough start. I know from years past what I’m capable of and I wasn’t doing my best,” she said. “I think I was putting too much pressure on myself. “There was something wrong. Obviously, I know what I need to do physically, so I worked on the mental stuff with the psychologist and got through it. I’m just trying to focus on the little things and not worrying about all the other things I was worrying about earlier. I’m playing freer and more fearless and I’m pretty pleased with how I’m doing now.”
DeBeer is certainly back to playing at a high level. She leads UofL in kills with 267, digs (204) and points (317) in addition to tutoring younger teammates at her position.
“Even when she was struggling offensively, the rest of her game was really impressive,” UofL coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “ We probably wouldn’t be talking about a Final Four as much if Anna had decided not to play her fifth year. It was huge for our team, huge for our leadership. Having the Final Four in Louisville is a big deal. If she had balked, I would have been like, ‘This is a once in a lifetime chance, so you’ve got to come back.’ If we didn’t have a chance to make it to the Final Four maybe it would have been a different story. But she believes we have a chance, and it would be a pretty amazing way to end an amazing career.”
Outside hitter
The talented group surrounding DeBeer includes All-American libero Elena Scott, also a Louisville native as a product of Mercy Academy; outside hitter Charitie Luper, who has over 1,000 career kills, more than half of them coming at UofL after playing two seasons at UCLA; junior middle blocker Cara Cresse; and setter Nayelis Cabello, who was named ACC Freshman of the Week four times in the first two months of the season.
Louisville was expected to be one of the nation’s best and it hasn’t disappointed. The Cards have been ranked in the top 5 most of the year despite playing a killer schedule, that’s inarguably the toughest in the nation. They owned a 25-3 record heading into the final week of the regular season, with all three defeats coming against top 5 teams -- No. 1 Pittsburgh (2-3), No. 2 Nebraska (0-3) and No. 4 Penn State (0-3). At publication time, UofL had claimed victories over seven top 25 clubs, with two more chances remaining -- a rematch against Pitt in the Yum! and a trip to No. 7 Stanford, who lost to the host Cards 3-0 on Sept. 29.
Kelly believes the brutal schedule has toughened up the Cards for the NCAA Tournament.
“Looking at our schedule before the season, I thought it was a little aggressive,” Kelly said. “But it was probably good for us the way things worked out. We’ve proved to ourselves what we can do and how great we can be. We’ve played some really tough teams, beaten some tough teams and lost to a few. We’ve done a lot. Now we’ve got to continue to prove ourselves.
“The Final Four being here is big for the city, big for the program, big for the university and we’re a great program. We might not be a ‘sweatshirt’ school or a team that can look back 25 years ago and say we were playing for national championships, but we’re here now. We attract players that fit our style and that want to be great, and that’s who we’re going to continue to get in our program. It’s pretty amazing what we’ve done in the last eight years, and I think we just keep setting the bar higher and higher.”
When the NCAA Selection Committee released its first list of the potential 16 top seeds for the tournament, UofL was No. 4. The Cards are virtually guaranteed to host first and second round games and would probably host a regional if they advance.
“I think our group this year is super special,” DeBeer said. “We’ve had some special groups in the past and made it pretty far (in the tournament), but with it being in Louisville, seeing our team hasn’t peaked and we’re continuing to get better, it’s super exciting because we know our potential. So our chances are looking really good.”
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