University of Louisville
at Hawaii<BR>(Hawaiian Airlines Tourn.)
Volleyball Falls to No. 2 Hawai'i
September 02, 2003 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2003
HONOLULU -- Kim Willoughby had 23 points, including 20 kills to lead No. 2 ranked University of Hawai'i to a three-game sweep of the University of Louisville in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.
Louisville's record moves to 1-2 with the 30-17, 30-24, 30-18 loss before 6,389 fans in Stan Sheriff Center. Hawai'i moves to 3-1 on the season. Lena Ustymenko was named to the All-Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic Tournament Team.
"We had stretches where we could play with them and hold our own," said head coach Leonid Yelin. "But against the second-ranked team in the country in their house, you need to sustain that and keep the leadto win."
In game one, Hawai'i had a block party but forgot to invite the Cardinals. U of L hitters were blocked seven times. The Cardinals let the Wahine jump out to a 9-3 lead in the early goingbut pulled back to within four at 14-10 on a Bing Sun kill. But that was as close as the No. 22 ranked Cards could get. The Wahine used a 7-1 run at the end to seal the 30-17 win. Sonja Percan shouldered the bulk of the Cardinal offense with five kills and a service ace, but the Cardinals hit just .030. The Wahine hit a toasty .515 led by Lily Kahumoku's eight kills.
"They were camped out on our hitters but we switched up and that helped a bit," said Yelin, whose team was outblocked 15-4.
In the second game, Cardinals stayed close and took their first lead at 11-10 on one of sevenkills in the second set by Lena Ustymenko. The Cardinals were able to tie again at 21 at on another Ustymenko kill. The Wahine reeled off three straight points and forced a Louisville timeouts. Hawai'i outscored the Cards 6-2 down the stretch for the 30-24 win. Cardinal hitting warmed considerably with 19 kills on 43 swings for a .302 percentage. Unfortunately, UH's improved to .525, led by Kahumoku's nine kills.
In the final game, the Wahine gained momentum behind .412 hittingand a run that featured three straight Kahumoku kills. Louisville called time out trailing 27-15 but it did little to shift Wahine momentum.
Louisville travels to the Michigan Wolverine Pepsi Challenge this Friday as non-conference play continues.
