University of Louisville
at Xavier
No. 6-Ranked Volleyball Quiets Musketeers 3-1
October 11, 2005 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 11, 2005
Lena Ustymenko got 21 kills and 16 digs on her birthday as she led the No. 6 ranked University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over Xavier Tuesday at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.
Louisville improves to 17-0 with the 27-30, 30-26, 30-22 and 30-16 win. Xavier falls to 12-7 for the season.
The 19-year old senior seemed to recover from a sluggish first game when she hit an uncharacteristic .071 after the raucous student section sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She improved to hit .314 for the match.
"We had to withstand their emotional push," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "We got on track in the second game. We knew they were a quick team and we had to adjust."
In the first game, Xavier used an 11-2 run to go up 23-16 and force a Cardinal timeout. U of L managed to rattle off four unanswered points during a 9-3 run of their own to bring them to within two at 28-26 and spark a quick timeout by Xavier. The Cardinals were able to stave off game point on a Jennifer Hoffman kill, but Kate Duchek put down the next ball to give the Musketeers the 30-27 win. U of L was outhit .302 to .288 but managed one more block at 3-2. Elena Pilnikova led the Cardinals with five kills.
The Cardinals regrouped in the second game when their hitting improved to .341 Ustymenko's hitting hand came alive, with the 6-3 senior notching four kills in the set. U of L had a slight surge to go ahead 19-17 causing XU coach Floyd Deaton to call timeout. U of L edged ahead 25-20 before Deaton used his last timeout to try and turn the Cardinals back. The Cardinals led 27-23 when XU pulled back within striking distance on two straight kills by Duchek. Yartseva and Ustymenko each had a kill to get to game point at 29-26 and a Pilnikova kill evened the game total at one apiece going into the break. Laci Hasenour six kills in the game for Xavier.
U of L took the lead for good at 19-18 and then scored seven unanswered points to go up 26-18 in the tightly played third game. U of L got to game point on 29-22 when Hoffman put down a ball from the middle. A Pilnikova service ace gave the Cardinals the game at 29-22. Ustymenko had nine kills to lead the Cardinals in that set. U of L out- hit the Musketeers .306 to .282.
In the final set, U of L pulled out to an 10-2 lead and took the wind out of the scrappy Musketeer sails. U of L hit .433 to push the Cardinals to the 30-16 win in the deciding game.
Pilnikova ended with 13 kills and Svetlana Dukule added 11. Hoffman had eight of U of L's 16 blocks. The Musketeers were led by Duchek's 18 kills and two blocks.
