University of Louisville
St. Johns (BIG EAST Final)
Volleyball Falls to St. John's in BIG EAST Championship
November 18, 2007 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2007
Tatyana Kolesnikova's 11 kills and three blocks were not enough as St. John's rolled to a 30-24, 30-14, 30-26 win over the University of Louisville in the BIG EAST Championship match in the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee Sunday evening.
"We were never in our game plan," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "We just couldn't get our blocking and defense set up like we planned. We did a little better in the third game but we didn't have the opportunity to make a push."t
The Cardinals post a 22-6 mark for the season and St. John's moves to 31-3. U of L was outhit .329 to .173 but did outblock the Red Storm 12-5. St. John's was led by BIG EAST MVP Hui Ping Huang's 18 kills. St. John's setter Wioleta Leszczynska earned Tournament MVP honors. Tatyana Kolesnikova and Svetlana Dukule both earned All-Tournament recognition for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals got off to a sluggish start in game one, falling behind nine points at 17-8. U of L ran off four straight to come back to within five at 17-12 and force St. John's to call timeout. The Red Storm rebuilt its lead to seven at 27-20 on an error by Tatyana Kolesnikova and then got to game point on a Rui Liu error. U of L's Elena Pilnikova had a skill and an error by Dana DeMayo brought the Cards to within four at 29-24 but the Cards couldn't hold out, falling 30-24. U of L hit .173 to SJU's .280.
The Cardinals fell behind 14-1 in the second frame and -.045 hitting didn't help the situation. St. John's hit .298 and held the Cardinals to the fewest points all year and the lowest since Nebraska held the Cardinals to 13 twice in 2006. In all, the Cardinals only had five kills to SJU's 20.
The Cardinals finally showed signs of life in the third game, staying close in the early going and then tying at nine to force a SJU timeout. The Cardinals took a short-lived lead at 12-11 and then again at 19-18 but the Storm used ball placement and strong defense to carve out a two point lead at 24-22 and force a Cardinal timeout. However, St. John's came back after the timeout to have Valeria Kovaleva smack two straight winners, so Yelin burned his last timeout to regroup. St. John's took the score to 27-22 and despite a belated battle by the Cards, won 30-26.
The No. 21 ranked Cardinals, who have been in the BIG EAST final match in each of its three years in the league, will await their fate in the NCAAs as the pairing will be announced the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
