University of Louisville
Illinois State<BR>(Illinois State Tournament)
Volleyball Beats Illinois State in Season Opener
September 01, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 1, 2001
NORMAL, Ill. -- Sonja Percan had 23 kills and nine digs to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 over host Illinois State at the Barker GMC Classic.
"She (Percan) hits the ball hard and fast and I told the team they would see something different," said ISU head coach Sharon Dingman. "We don't have anyone in the gym that can hit that hard in practice and we may not see anyone like that again this year."
The Cardinals won their opener 30-25, 30-28, 23-30, 30-28 and face UM Kansas City and UW Milwaukee tomorrow.
"It was a great environment and a very, very good team we played against," said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach. "I am pleased with the overall result but showed us the areas we need to work on."
Both teams had to adjust to new rules and a new scoring system. Under the new NCAA rules, volleyball plays under the rally score format with the first four games going to 30 by two points. If a fifth game is needed, it is played to 15 points by two.
In the first game, neither team allowed the other to run off with an early lead. A block by Stacey Mercer gave Louisville a 10-7 lead, with four of ISU's points coming from Cardinal service errors. A block combination of Abby Lewis and Christy Beyers brought the Redbirds back to within two points. Mercer, Lesley Drury each had kills with Emily Roberson adding a service ace to open the lead to 13-8 and forcing an ISU time out. The timeout did little to stem the Cardinal momentum, as U of L moved to 17-10 on a kill by Sonja Percan. The Redbirds, playing before a noisy crowd of 2010,fought back to within four points at 20-16 when the Cardinals committed three straight hitting errors before Yelin called time out. Anastasia Zaitseva had a cross court kill to bring U of L to within two points of the win at 28-22. After ISU head coach Sharon Dingman called timeout, Louisville won the game 30-25 on a Zaitseva kill. ISU's Lewis and Megan O'Connell combined for 10 of ISU's 12 kills. Percan led the Cardinals with 7 kills as U of L hit .385.
In the second game, Louisville squeaked by the Redbirds 30-28. Percan added another six kills to her total although the Cardinals' hitting percentage dipped to .270. ISU continued to benefit from Louisville's inconsistent serving, with12 points after two games coming from service errors by U of L.
"With the rally score format, you still want to serve aggressively but errors cost you points," said Yelin.
ISU came back to win the third game 30-23 as Cardinal hitting cooled to .171 with eight hitting errors. Louisville was victimized by strong Redbird serving, allowing five aces in the third game. Former Cardinal Brandi Petelle notched two aces in that stretch for her new school . After staying close throughout the game and tying at 23, ISU scored five of its final seven points on U of L miscues. ISU's hitting improved from .098 in the second set to .273 in the third.
"We lost momentum when ISU stepped up and with the new format it is critical to stay close because it is so hard to regain control of momentum," said Yelin.
The Cardinals took an 8-1 lead in the final game but had to stave off a furious Redbird rally that ended in the two point win. In all the Cardinals committed 17 service errors and were outblocked 14 to five.
"I am pleased with our effort and I don't think we could have played a better first match. We are going to be a good serving team and we proved that," said Dingman, whose team had eight aces. "Having Jenny Kabbes back makes us an incredibly good blocking team."
Zaitseva was the other Cardinal in double figures kills with 17 and two aces. For ISU, Megan O'Connell had 14 kills. Kabbes, who returns to the ISU lineup after two shoulder surgeries, had six kills and 10 blocks.
