University of Louisville
KENTUCKY
No. 11-Ranked Volleyball Sweeps Rival Kentucky
September 07, 2005 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2005
Junior outside hitter Ana Yartseva had 11 kills and 10 digs to lead the University of Louisville to a 30-18, 30-26, 35-33 sweep of intrastate rival Kentucky Wednesday night at Cardinal Arena.
U of L's win moves its home winning streak to 20 and preserves a perfect season mark at 4-0. Kentucky moves to 3-1.
"I want to thank our fans for filling the arena and making a true home court advantage for us," said Leonid Yelin of the standing room only crowd of 989. "It is always good for the sport of volleyball to have a competitive rivalry and this was a very exciting match."
U of L used blocking and strong serving to keep the Wildcats guessing. The Cardinals outblocked UK 9-4 and had seven aces to the Cats four aces. Kentucky hit .092 to U of L's .254. The win is eight straight for the Cardinals, dating back to the 1999 season.
In game one, U of L started out with two straight aces by Lena Ustymenko and the team helped the Cardinal cause with .300 hitting. UK had more errors than kills for negative hitting percentage and were outblocked 3-0. Jennifer Hoffman led the Cardinals four kills on four attacks and three blocks. The Cats were led in the first set by Queen Nzenwa.
The second game saw the Cardinals unable to shake a tenacious UK squad. After trailing 7-2, UK ran off five straight to tie at seven and then built a two-point lead at 14-12. U of L answered with four straight points to go back up 16-14 and then never trailed again. Cardinal hitting cooled to .167 and UK improved to .159. Nzenwa had four kills in the second set.
"I was very disappointed in our senior leadership from Lena Ustymenko. I thought the other seniors Jennifer Hoffman and Jennifer Craven stepped up, Steph Marsh played well and even the freshman were focused," said Yelin. "We can't afford to have her fail in this role."
The third game was a free-for-all with Kentucky's defense holding them in the match despite .310 hitting by the Cardinals. UK took its first lead at 14-13 and then built a tenuous lead at 17-16. U of L came back with a 5-1 run and forced a Wildcat timeout. Kentucky got to game point at 29-26 but U of L scored three to tie at 29. UK had two straight points and got to game point at 31-30 but a Jennifer Hoffman had a kill to tie at 31. UK regained the lead at 33-32 on a Nzenwa kill but a point by Yartseva and two straight by Ustymenko nipped the Kentucky comeback.
Hoffman hit a torrid .571 with nine kills on 14 attacks and just one error. She had a season high eight blocks, including four solos. Libero Nicole Bateman had nine digs as did Craven. Kentucky was led by Danielle Wallace's 14 kills.
