University of Louisville
Purdue
Volleyball Edged by Purdue
September 20, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 20, 2008
Justine Landi's 16 kills, 12 digs and two aces were not enough as the University of Louisville volleyball team was swept 27-25, 25-18, 25-22 by Purdue in the second match of the Flyer Classic in Frericks Center in Dayton.
"We have a lack of experience and our freshmen setters are trying hard to stay in the system and do a good job," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "We had a couple of bad choices in the first set and it took us well into the second set to recover mentally from it. We made adjustments after the break and were in the game all the way down the stretch."
U of L falls to 4-5 with Purdue improving to 10-1. U of L hit .217 to PU's .297 and the Cardinals were outblocked for the second straight match at 8-6, something that did not happen all last season. U of L posted nine service errors and seven blocking errors that did little to help their cause in the tightly called match. Jana Matiasovska added 11 kills and a block for the Cardinals. Lecia Brown had four blocks. Cardinal freshmen setters Renee Tomko and Gosia Lech combined for 40 assists. Purdue was paced by Danita Merlau's 15 kills with Stephanie Lynch adding nine kills and eight blocks.
There were 13 ties and five lead changes in a closely contested first set. Tied down the stretch, Purdue won the deuce set with a net call on Louisville and an ace by Sam Ainsworth for the 27-25 win. Both teams were hitting well, with Purdue edging the Cardinals in hitting percentage .379 to .324. Justine Landi paced the Cardinals with seven kills.
In the second set, the Boilers blew out to a 12-5 lead, forcing the Cardinals to scramble for points. U of L recovered enough to come within two at 14-12, but four service errors were enough of a momentum killer for the comeback to fall short in the 25-18 loss.
U of L had the lead at 11-7 in the third set before Purdue came back to tie at 12 and then took the lead at 18-17. Louisville kept the fire to the Boilers' feet but were behind 23-22 when Carrie Gurnell connected on for a kill and Stephanie Lynch aced the Cards for the the 25-22 win.
The Cardinals will play Dayton in the final match of the Flyer Classic at 7 p.m. this evening at the Frericks Center.
