University of Louisville
New Mexico State
Volleyball Falls to New Mexico State
September 07, 2007 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2007
Outside hitter Jana Matiasovska's 21 kills, two aces and three blocks were not enough as the University of Louisville volleyball team fell 3-2 to New Mexico State in the first match of the Ameritas Players Challenge Friday night in Lincoln, Nebraska.
U of L's now posts a 3-4 record with the 30-20, 23-30, 30-24, 16-30, 19-21 loss. NMSU moves to 7-1 on the season.
The Cardinals hit .261 and outblocked the Aggies 13.5 to seven. The two teams combined for 21 service errors. Louisville was called in the net 11 times and NMSU was whistled for seven blocking errors. Svetlana Dukule had 11 kills and three blocks. Lecia Brown led all blockers with 10. Justine Landi had a team-high 12 digs and added 11 kills.
In the first game, U of L got off to a slightly sluggish start, letting the Aggies go up 14-12. A 9-3 U of L run boosted the Cardinal lead to 21-17 and gave them some breathing room. New Mexico State burned both its timeouts to try to regain its footing but the Cardinals powered to the 30-20 win. Five NMSU service errors and .444 U of L hitting proved too much for the Aggies.
In the second game, NMSU took its first lead at 7-6 and then never trailed again. A short-lived 4-0 run by the Cardinals to come within two at 19-17 was not nearly enough especially when the Aggies put together a 9-4 run down the stretch. U of L hitting cooled to .128 in the second to the Aggies .308 as the Cards fell 30-23.
In the third game, U of L did not take the lead until 23-22 and then outscored the Aggies 9-2 down the stretch for the 30-24 win. The Cardinals had three aces in that game and hit .364 to NMSU's .175. U of L was led by Justine Landi's seven kills.
U of L dug itself an 8-1 hole to start the fourth game and struggled to overcome that margin. The Aggies kept building on the lead including scoring the final six points of the game unanswered to post the 30-16 win and force the fifth game. The Cards hit a chilly .154 while the Aggies were connecting on .571 of their swings.
In the deciding game, the score went back and forth with Louisville reaching game and match point first on a Justine Landi ace at 14-13. But a lift call on Dabbs and a hitting error on Kolesnikova gave NMSU their own match point. Louisville called time out and a kill by Dukule saved the match and tied the score back up at 15. A hitting error by Landi took the Aggies back to match point. Aggie libero Krystal Torres had a service error to tie it up again. The teams tied it at 18 and 19. A kill by Amber Simpson set up the Aggies at match point and this time a tip by Alyssa Gintant caught the Cards off guard and gave the game to NMSU 21-19 and the match 3-2.
New Mexico State was led by Kim Oguh's 27 kills with Lindsey Yon and Amber Simpson each adding 18.
