University of Louisville
Marquette
Volleyball Sweeps Marquette
October 24, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 24, 2008
Jana Matiasovska had 11 kills and four blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a three-set sweep of Marquette in BIG EAST Volleyball action in Milwaukee Friday night.
U of L moves to 9-10 and 4-3 in the BIG EAST with the 25-8, 25-19, 25-21 win. Marquette falls to 8-12 and 2-5 in the league. U of L hit .304 to MU's .000 and outblocked the Eagles 11-4.5.
"When we moved Justine Landi to setter in the 6-2, we were able to use her leadership to keep us in our system. She is a mentally tough kid and doesn't try anything crazy and is a steady influence on our team," said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach.
Landi had 10 kills, 18 assists and two aces for the Cardinals. Gwen Rucker had six kills, hitting .333. Marquette was led by Ciara Jones' six kills.
In the first set, U of L's 11-0 run was more than sufficient to keep Marquette at bay. The Cardinals, running a new 6-2 offense, was hitting a torrid .345 led by Jana Matiasovska's four kills on seven attacks and no errors.
"Jana is showing signs of coming back to where she was before she got hurt. And Gwen Rucker, who has never played left side before did great," said Yelin.
The second set was much closer when Marquette fought back from a 5-1 deficit and tied at nine and took their first lead at 10-9. The Cardinals came back to tie at 13 and then traded points back and forth until a 6-2 run but them up 17-15. Despite using both her time outs, Marquette coach Pati Rolf was unable to counter the Cardinal block. U of L had seven blocks in that set and the Eagles could not mount another comeback behind -.067 hitting. Lecia Brown had five blocks in the set to lead the Cardinals to the 25-19 win.
In the second set, U of L used a 6-2 run to go up 15-10 and force a Marquette timeout. The Eagles trimmed the lead to four at 17-14 and Yelin called time out to try and chill the Marquette momentum. The Cardinals responded with three unanswered points to go up 20-15. U of L continued to hit well and although Marquette staved off match point three times, a blast from Rui Liu put the match away with a third set score of 25-21.
The Cardinals continue their conference swing when they visit Syracuse on Sunday. The surprising Orange team is tied for second in the BIG EAST at 5-1.
