University of Louisville
East Carolina
Volleyball Beats East Carolina
September 22, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 22, 2001
GREENVILLE, NC -- Anastasia Zaitseva had 26 kills to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over East Carolina in Conference USA volleyball action.
U of L won 30-27, 35-37, 30-14 and 31-29. The Cardinals, 6-1 overall, are now 1-0 in Conference USA. ECU drops to 1-8 and 0-1 in C-USA.
"Every conference win on the road is a plus," said head coach Leonid Yelin. "Our hitters kept us in the match when some other elements were lacking."
The Cardinals got off to a sluggish start in the first game, allowing ECU out to a 15-12 lead. The Cardinals rallied to go ahead 16-15. After an ECU, timeout, the Cardinals continued building their lead, when Lesley Drury smashed an overpass down at the ECU ten-foot line to go up 24-21 . The Pirates staved off game point twice before Stacey Mercer tipped the ball behind the block for game point. Inaccurate serving by the Cardinals gave ECU six of their points in the first game alone.
In the second game, Louisville powered out to a 15-8 lead. The Pirates regrouped after a time out, down 26-21. Three straight aces by Sarah Vick sparked a five point rally to tie at 26. After committing a service error on game point the Cardinals seemed unable to return Jessica Vick's serves. She had three straight aces inch ahead to 30-29. The teams then traded points until a kill by Amanda Rudolf and a service ace by Alexis Jones gave the Pirates the game.
"ECU played with a lot of emotion and grit," said head coach Leonid Yelin. "We started out flat-footed and they used that to their advantage."
After the intermission, the Cardinals zoomed out to a 15-5 lead, with four of ECU's points coming from Louisville service errors. The Cardinals scored in bunches to finish off the Pirates 30-14.
In the final set, neither team could establish a solid lead, until the Pirates went up 20-16 on a lift by Drury. ECU edged back tying at 25, 28 and 29. A Lesley Drury tip and a hitting error by ECU on match point gave the Cardinals the two point winning margin.
"We had too many service errors," said Yelin. "Those are unforced errors. You can't give your opponent that many points and expect to win easily."
In all the Cardinals had 21 service errors.
