Vanderbilt Spring Match Thoughts

The Cards opened their 2025 spring season last night with a match against Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is a brand new program, with an official program record of 0-0 still, with their first official competition happening this fall. The Cards take the “win” 4-1.

To put just a little bit of context on this Vanderbilt team, they’re coached by Anders Nelson, formerly Associate Head Coach at Kentucky under Craig Skinner. Also with the Kentucky connection, Azhani Tealer will be on the sidelines as an assistant coach for the ‘Dores, though she isn’t yet as she’s still playing in the PVF professional season alongside Louisville alumnae Anna DeBeer and Elena Scott for the Indy Ignite (and Tealer has been absolutely tearing it up as of late on the right side for the Ignite!). Other Assistant Coaches are Russell Corbelli, and Lauren Plum who played at Oregon.

The only other name I recognized on Vanderbilt’s team is Hailee Mack, who Louisville fans may recognize as the daughter of former UofL MBB Head Coach Chris Mack. During his tenure at UofL, the Macks were occasionally spotted at Volleyball matches given his daughters affinity for Volleyball, so it’s no surprise to see her playing at this level.

Given the 4-1 set score, obviously things get a bit loosey goosey in spring play, with play being adjusted based on the combined desire of the coaches. So not only did the teams play a fifth set when it normally would not have been contested with Louisville winning 3-1 after four, but they played the fifth set to 25 instead of the “official” 15.

Honestly, they probably should’ve stopped at four. Vanderbilt, with a smaller rotation of players, just looked gassed, and the fifth set was not particularly competitive. On the whole, however, Vanderbilt did play competitively in the first four sets, including winning the second set, which is really impressive for a brand new program with 10 of the 15 players on their roster being freshmen.

The crowd was largely a Louisville crowd, though Vanderbilt was fairly well represented.

Since this was a spring match, no official statistics are available, so we’re going on vibes and impressions here.

Overall, I was very pleased with what I saw from this Louisville team. After loosing the likes of Anna DeBeer, Elena Scott, Charitie Luper, Sofia Maldonado Diaz, Phekran Kong, and more, there was a lot of offense, and defense to replace.

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions about how the team will run from spring play because it’s a time for experiments and letting multiple people play in various roles to see what falls out. We saw three different players wearing the libero jersey, we saw four different players playing left side hitting, we saw a lot of 5-1 offensive scheme, but a bit of 6-2 as well. About the only really settled positions were the middles, with the expected Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman duo.

On the left, Chloe Chocoinne has arrived from her time at Purdue and immediately impressed. She is a bit “undersized” at 5‘10” for a left side hitter, but she’s got enough hops to compensate, getting on top of the swings quite well, and blocking comfortably along side the tall tree Cresse.

Payton Peterson seemed like she was on a mission to prove that her clutch semifinal performance in December was no fluke, and she did just that. There are always minor details to be coached up, but she impressed both offensively and defensively.

Ava Utterback played one set as a DS, and one set as a full rotation left side hitter, and performed well. I’d say she’s behind Chiccoine and Peterson in the lineup, but certainly able to enter the game when necessary and perform well. Depth is a very good thing.

Kamden Shrand spent most of the time on the floor as the libero, and she did well, but the upside surprise of the evening was in the last two sets when Molly Urban donned the libero jersey and pretty much stunned the crowd with her play. Her passes and digs were almost always on target, and she got to shots that, honestly, she never would’ve gotten up in the fall. She’s clearly been putting in work, which is particularly impressive given her all-As and Bs academic workload as a BioEngineering Major at Speed School.

Nayelis Cabello was clearly enjoying herself playing in a 5-1 system most of the evening with setter dumps galore and even a BIG second contact swing off of an amazing dig from incoming freshman Hannah Kenny.

Kalyssa Blackshear, another incoming freshman played well on the right side, splitting time with Reese Robins, and pairing with her in the 6-2 for a set. Blackshear certainly has the height at 6‘5” to be a significant presence, but will need a bit of development, not surprising for a freshman. Robins looks to have incrementally improved her play. Already a presence on the right side, she looked just a bit more comfortable and “up to speed” than she did in the fall, so there’s good progress there.

Everyone on the Cards roster saw playing time on the court with the exception of Molly Wilson, who hasn’t yet arrived from UWashington, and Elle Glock. While there has been no public statement from the team or from Glock, word is that she will not be returning, instead opting to focus on her academics to finish her scholastic career.

Next up for the Cards is a match against IU in Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington on April 5th at 6pm. Tickets are $11 and can be purchased through IU at IU’s single event tickets site.