LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The volleyball gods — and if you ever doubted, are obviously working moms — are having a moment.
How else do you explain Payton Peterson — Payton Peterson! — getting the kill that put Louisville into the national-title match?
Or Penn State pulling off a reverse sweep to oust Nebraska?
Yes, at 3 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ABC, one of two women will become the first to coach a team to an NCAA Division I volleyball national championship.
But we were this close to having two men coaching for the title. Until the kid of a coaching mom delivered and then the team of a coaching mom fighting breast cancer rallied like no team ever had in a national semifinal.
There’s more to it than just Dani Busboom Kelly of Louisville (30-5) or Kaite Schumacher-Cawley of Penn State (34-2) breaking through for all the women before them.
It’s for Cathy George, who took Texas-Arlington to the 1989 national semifinals, the first woman coach to get that far after volleyball became an NCAA sport after years of being in the AIAW.
It’s for Florida’s Mary Wise, the first woman to coach in an NCAA final (2003, 2017) and whose Gators went to six other national semifinals, and for two BYU coaches, Elaine Michaelis, who in 1993 took the Cougars to the national semifinals, and Heather Olmstead, who got that far in 2018.
It’s for San Diego’s Jen Petrie, the same coach who took her Toreros to the 2022 national semifinals and who left her team to be at Boston College a few weeks ago to see her daughter, Jane, be a part of senior day.
It’s for Kirsten Bernthal Booth, the Creighton coach, who was there when Northern Iowa did all but upset Louisville in the NCAA Tournament round of 16. watching her own daughter, UNI freshman setter Reese Booth.
It’s for the coaching moms who won matches in this year’s NCAA Tournament, including Sam Erger of SMU, Dawn Sullivan of Missouri, Michelle Collier of Georgia Tech, Bre Henry of Ole Miss, and Bernthal Booth, whose Creighton team lost to Penn State in five in the regional final for the right to be here.
“A lot of us old-timer women have been waiting for this day,” Bernthal Booth said. “To know that it’s going to happen on Sunday is incredible. Two fantastic coaches, two fantastic programs. There are a lot of us taking a lot of pride in finally getting this monkey off our backs.”
And it’s for Bobbi Peterson, the venerable UNI coach, who two weeks ago was actually coaching against Louisville and her daughter, Payton. UNI was so, so, so close to pulling off the upset of the tournament before losing in five at Louisville. And had Louisville not made its comeback, Payton Peterson would never have had her magic moment and her mom would not have been in the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday night watching.
To recap, Louisville star Anna DeBeer went down with a leg injury in the fourth set against Pittsburgh and her team leading two sets to one and 2-0 in the fourth. Peterson, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter entered the lineup, taking the place of the team star and hometown hero. She not only had back-to-back aces that gave Louisville a 9-3 lead, but had four digs and two kills with no errors in four attacks. And the last one put the punctuation point on the match as Peterson overpowered the Pitt block for the match-ending point.
“It’s so weird talking about that,” Bobbi Peterson said. “As a player you don’t realize how much control you have in a match. Then as a coach you think you have control but you really don’t. And being a mom,” she started laughing.
“Being in the stands is such a different and hard role. But it’s an awesome role. You have to learn how to embrace it. Always as a coach I’m always thinking what’s my face showing right now? As a mom, I think the same way. I know she’s not going to look up at me, but what is everybody else seeing from a mom who is getting a chance to watch her daughter compete?
“It’s really special.”
It wasn’t lost on Peterson that had her team pulled off the upset Payton’s moment would never have happened. Had UNI won, it would have been one of the greatest moments of Peterson’s long and successful career, but she would have beaten her daughter’s team to do it,
Peterson had to compose herself to talk about it.
“Honestly, it was probably one of the most emotional moments of my whole entire life,” Peterson said. “Because you want it so badly for your team and you know the grind and what they put in daily and you want that opportunity for them. And besides it just being my daughter on the other side of the net, you have a relationship with those players and those coaches and the things they had to deal with this season, all the pressure they’ve had at Louisville. And the thought that you were going to end that for them.”
Schumacher-Cawley and her husband, Mike, have three daughters, Stella, Nora and Shea. Schumacher-Cawley, a star on Penn State’s 1999 NCAA title team, is in her third year as the head coach after replacing legendary Russ Rose.
Schumacher-Cawley has done her best to not make her breast cancer the defining moment of the season, although she is going through chemotherapy treatments and has lost her hair but not, apparently and most incredibly, her energy.
And about being a coaching mom?
“I think it’s always been able to have that balance. I’m fortunate that my husband, Mike, is so great and has been in sports as well and he understands this. He’s like our number one fan for sure.
“My mom is living with us right now and helping out. I think to have the support staff that I have with, not only my family, but my assistant coaches and our director of ops and everything that’s involved in Penn State volleyball is what makes it easy.
“You know, I do miss some things, but my kids are here and got to fly down with us in our private plane. So it all pays off. They’re happy to be a part of this. I think they’re at the age where they understand that I’m not going to be home or things like that, and they’re OK with that if this is the result.”
Eighth-year Louisville coach Busboom Kelly and husband Lane Kelly have a young son, Boone. Busboom Kelly, an NCAA champion herself at Nebraska in 2006, took Louisville to the 2022 title match, the first ACC team to get that far.
She was asked about Schumacher-Cawley.
“Incredible. I cannot imagine going through a season going through chemotherapy and what that must have been like. I heard in a recent article or interview that she hasn’t missed a practice all year, and that makes it even more incredible to me that she’s been able to do that,” Busboom Kelly said.
” … following Russ Rose, who’s one of the most legendary coaches ever in our sport and to take a team back to the final four in just three years — take being a man or a woman out of it — that’s an amazing accomplishment.
“Then what she’s done this year despite the breast cancer. She has a new team. It’s really, really impressive, and I think another just great moment for the sport of volleyball.”
Even being healthy presents tough times for coaching moms.
“I think this whole tournament has been a little bit of a challenge,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s like such a blessing to be (playing at) home and there’s so many amazing things about it. But last night I wanted to get home so I could wake up and see my son this morning. It’s just like the balancing act is a little bit tougher where you want to be in both places, and maybe I should be more focused on volleyball.
“I also want to take advantage of this, because it is so rare. So the next postseason run, we’re not going to be in Louisville, so I won’t get these opportunities. I want to take advantage of the opportunities that I do have to be a mom and make that a priority.
“I’m lucky like our whole staff has young kids. So we can kind of balance it out between each other. I think that really helps and makes it not feel like somebody’s missing this or somebody’s missing that. It’s like, OK, you have this tonight, you have this, and we do a good job of that.”
When the last ball hits the floor on Sunday afternoon, another NCAA title and the NAIA championship will have been won by women coaches.
Heather Pavlik took Juniata to that program’s third Division III championship in a row and Candace Moats and Indiana Wesleyan won it all in NAIA.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Pavlik said of the DI final. “There have been a lot of good women coaches in the game for a very long time but to see two female coaches coaching in the last game in Division I is a big deal right now.
“And moms,” said Pavlik, a coaching mom herself. “That doesn’t come without its challenges. I think we all understand what they’ve had to do and how they’ve had to do it. I think it’s a great time for young women to see that both can be done and done well.”
Peterson has been the poster mom for them all.
During her 25 seasons at UNI, both of her sets of twins have played college volleyball. Baylee played at UNI, while Sydney started at Texas and transferred to finish with her mom and sister. Jadyn, Payton’s twin, plays for UNI.
Sunday will be so special for Bobbi Peterson in so many ways.
“This is incredibly cool. I was up late (Thursday) night and that was one of the things I was thinking about, what a cool thing it is to have both of those coaches playing for the title. And two people who do it so well, and I’m just so grateful that my daughter is part of a program that has someone like Dani.
“You can be a mom and you can do this job in a professional and awesome way. I remember specifically being on a panel a few years ago about moms who coach. And now it’s happening so much more and it’s great to see that.”
She paused and smiled.
“It’s very tough. I’m not gonna lie. There are so many things that are hard about it. But to see so many women in it and doing such a great job.”
After the semifinals, Peterson added, “I’ve gotta tell you, I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Yale coach Erin Appleman, a coaching mom and former Penn State assistant whose team lost its first-round match at — of all places — Penn State to North Carolina, actually recruited young Katie Schumacher.
“It’s incredible,” Appleman said. “When I was a young girl, I would look at my mom, a business person and being a mom and doing two jobs. But coaching is a whole other level of commitment, to the volleyball family and then you have your family. And they integrate each other very well a lot of times, but you’re also missing things in your kids’ lives and you’re missing stuff from both.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment for both Katie and Dani to do this at this level. I couldn’t be more proud to be a coaching mom.”
Busboom Kelly gets the last words.
“I think it’s more of a feeling. It’s more like just being really proud that we can be the role models and hopefully blaze a new trail and show ADs that women can do it. We can be moms, and we can be high-level coaches.
“Then not only show ADs that women can do it, but our players that they can do both. Then we can be examples day-to-day of how to do that. Whether they want to be full-time moms or have a career, we want to be a good example for that.
“It’s going to be awesome for the sport, I think, to get this monkey off its back and move on from this, where it’s not historic that a woman wins, it’s just a regular thing. It will be great when every final four there’s a chance for a woman to win it.”
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