University of Louisville
Connecticut
Volleyball Drops UConn 3-1 in BIG EAST Opener
September 26, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2008
Justine Landi had 12 kills, an ace and five blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win in the BIG EAST opener against Connecticut Friday night in Storrs.
U of L moves to 5-6 with the 25-16, 25-22, 14-25, 31-29 win. UConn posts a mark of 9-5 and is 0-1 in the league. U of L hit .263 and outblocked the Huskies 14-6. Tatyana Kolesnikova joined Landi in double digit kills with 13 and a solo block. Jana Matiasovska had 15 kills and three blocks for the Cardinals. The Huskies were led by Rebecca Murray's 12 kills.
"We got some help from our bench now that we are healthy," said Leonid Yelin. "We were able to tweak the lineup a bit and close out the match."
U of L took the first two sets but were not prepared for UConn's determination in the do-or-die third set. The Cardinals then battled to a deuce win in the fourth set.
In the first set, U of L popped out to an 18-10 lead but let UConn back in the mix with five straight Husky points to close the gap to three at 18-15. After a U of L timeout, the Cards outscored UConn 7-1 for the 25-16 win. The Cardinals tallied five blocks and hit .410 led by Tatyana Kolesnikova's four kills and one block. Rui Liu, who has not seen action in the last nine matches, came off the bench and had two kills and three blocks.
In the second set, U of L took command early with a 16-12 lead after a five point run. The Huskies hunkered down, came back to tie at 19 and then took lead at 20 with a kill by Megan Frey and an ace by Devon Farrell. UConn could not capitalize on the Cardinals lapse and U of L scored six of the last seven points. U of L hitting cooled considerably with a .147 mark but UConn's was an icy .053.
Down two sets to none, UConn came out of the break and ran out to a 19-7 lead and used .367 hitting to push to the 25-14 win. Farrell led the way with five kills for the Huskies.
U of L seemed to have wrested the momentum back from the Huskies in the final set when they went up 15-10. Later in the set, the Huskies had hot hitting hands during an 11-2 run to tie at 24. The teams traded points until U of L scored on a kill by Tatyana Kolesnikova and a miss by UConn for the 31-29 win.
