University of Louisville
Illinois State
Volleyball Edged by Redbirds in Heartbreaker
September 12, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 12, 2008
Justine Landi had 19 kills and three aces but it was not enough as the Cardinals fell 3-2 to Illinois State in the first match of the Chicago Classic at Mother McAuley High School in Chicago.
The Cardinals fall to 2-3 with the 20-25, 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 12-15 loss to the Redbirds, who improve to 5-3 on the year.
"Unforced and some mental errors hurt us in tight situations," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "We are a young team and we are still learning how to close a match."
U of L outblocked the Redbirds 10-7 but 15 service errors doomed the Cards. Freshman Anastasia Artemeva was the other Cardinal in double digit kills with ten. ISU hit .191 and were led by Peggy Riessen's 24 kills and 10 digs.
The first set was tight in the early going but with the teams tied at 13, Illinois State went on an 8-4 run and forced Yelin to call time out when his team trailed 19-13. Unforced errors haunted the Cardinals as the Redbirds converted on six of the last nine points for the 25-20 win. U of L hit just .118 to ISU's .182. Landi led with five kills.
Leading 14-8 in the second set, U of L allowed the Redbirds to go on a 5-1 run to pull to 15-13. After the timeout, ISU tied at 16 but U of L rallied with a 3-0 run to force an ISU timeout. The Cardinals outscored the Redbirds 6-3 down the stretch for the win. Cardinal hitting improved to .265 while ISU cooled to .103. Landi had five kills in that set as well.
Louisville took the third set 25-19 behind .323 hitting powered by Tatyana Kolesnikova's four kills. The Cardinals popped out to a 10-5 lead and then slowly pulled away from the faltering Redbirds who were struggling on offense, connecting on just .031 of their attacks.
The Redbirds regrouped in the fourth set and went up 8-2 on the Cardinals. U of L answered with a 7-0 run and then took the lead at 11-10 for the first time on a kill by Anastasia Artemeva. The teams traded points until ISU outscored the Cards 5-1 down the stretch for the 25-20 win. The Redbirds hit .310 in that set to set up the tiebreaking set. U of L hit just .059.
In the fifth and final set, ISU went up 6-3 in the early going but Louisville scrambled back to tie at 10. Illinois State scored three straight to go up 13-10 and Yelin used his final time out at to try and chill the `Birds. After a missed U of L serve, Justine Landi connected for a kill for what was to be the final point for the Cardinals as another service error tipped the match to Illinois State.
Louisville plays Illinois-Chicago at noon on Saturday and the No. 1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions at 7:30 (CT).
