Louisville volleyball stuns No. 2 Texas in NCAA tournament Sweet 16

Heading into Tuesday afternoon/evening, the Louisville volleyball program had never won a set in a Sweet 16 match, and the Texas Longhorns had not lost an NCAA tournament match at home since 2006.

Neither of those things are true anymore.

Behind the hard-hitting of redshirt freshman star Aiko Jones, U of L took sets one, two and five on their way to a stunning victory over No. 2 overall seed Texas in Austin.

Jones finished the match with 23 kills.

The Cards now move on to the regional finals for the first time in program history. They’ll play the winner of tonight’s match between No. 7 seed Florida and No. 10 seed Minnesota Saturday night at 8 p.m. with a trip to the Final Four on the line. You’ll be able to watch that match live on ESPNU.

It’s hard to really quantify just how massive an upset this was, but here’s a start: Texas had been the only school in the nation to advance to the Regional finals in each of the last 13 NCAA tournaments, a streak that had dated all the way back to 2006. They had also won 26 consecutive matches at home and had not lost in Austin this season.

Major, major shoutouts to Dani Busboom Kelly and everyone associated with Cardinal volleyball on what is without question the single biggest day in the history of the program.

Let’s keep it rolling tomorrow night.