University of Louisville
vs. Oral Roberts<BR>(Arkansas Tournament)
Volleyball Beats Oral Roberts 3-1
September 14, 2002 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 14, 2002
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Sophomore outside hitter Bing Sun had 17 kills to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1win over Oral Roberts University at the Morning News Invitational hosted by Arkansas.
The Cardinals improve their record to 7-2 and had a perfect 3-0 mark in the Invitational. U of L won 30-23, 30-26, 27-30, 30-17. ORU leaves Fayetteville with a 0-3 mark for the tournament and a 5-5 mark overall.
"This was very satisfying weekend because we have regrouped after losing our best hitter (Sonja Percan) and showed we have more than one offensive weapon," said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach.
Louisville had three other hitters besides Sun in double digit kills with Lena Ustymenko adding 15, and Anastasia Zaitseva and Stacey Mercer adding 12 and 10 respectively.
In the first game, the Cardinals used a 14-4 run to establish their biggest lead at 24-13. ORU staged a short-lived comeback, on a 6-1 run to 25-19 but Louisville's timeout chilled the Golden Eagle hitting. Sun led with seven kills with Zaitseva adding six. The Cardinals outhit ORU .381 to .205.
ORU built a 7-3 lead in the second game but Louisville came back and took the lead at 15-13 on a Lena Ustymenko kill. ORU stayed close but got outscored 6-3 down the stretch. Sun lead all hitters in that game with six. ORU was outhit .091 to .220.
In the third game, ORU scored in spurts and built up a 10 point lead at 23-13. The Golden Eagles had a slump that allowed the Cardinals to go on 12-4 run and get within two at 27-25. After a ORU timeout, U of L was able to hold off game point for one serve but a Patricia Menezes kill put the game out of reach for the Cards at 30-27.
"They dug a ton of balls and that makes you work hard for every point," said Yelin.
Louisville grabbed a hold of the momentum in the final game and blew out to a 10-5 lead and then spread it to 20-9 as Cardinal hitting wore down ORU.
ORU was led by Menezes' 17 kills.
