University of Louisville
BELMONT
Volleyball Beats Belmont
August 29, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 29, 2009
Freshman Lola Arslanbekova had 20 kills, 12 digs and three blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over Belmont in the Sheraton Riverside/Puccini's Cardinal Classic in volleyball action late Saturday night in Cardinal Arena.
U of L evened its record at 1-1 with the 14-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-18 win over Belmont (0-3). The Cardinals hit .323 and outblocked their opponents 14-7, led by Gwen Rucker and Lecia Brown, who each had seven. Rucker added five kills to the Cardinal tally. Belmont recorded 11 aces, led by Channing Salava's four but hit just .127. BU's Maggie Johnson led the Bruins with 13 kills.
"Our block started coming alive and we doubled them up on blocks. Our serve receive still could be better but I think our setters distributed the ball better tonight," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "We stayed in our game plan and we executed our strategy against their very effective setter who was very effective with the tip and dump in their other matches."
Belmont used three five point runs to pull away from the Cardinals, who did not get any closer than two points. Justine Landi connected for a kill to make it 10-8. Bruin serving kept U of L back on its heels with Channing Salava's four in the first set. U of L was not helped by .067 hitting but did have three blocks in the 25-14 loss.
U of L ran out to an 8-1 lead in the second set and then hit .333 with five blocks to keep the Bruins at bay. Gwen Rucker had five blocks in that set and Anastasia Artemeva had a hot hitting hand with three kills.
Freshman Lola Arslanbekova had 10 kills in the third set to pace the Cardinals, who hit .366 as a team in that set. Belmont serving kept the Bruins in the game but their .132 hitting did them no favors. However, U of L still had to call a timeout at 22-20 and derailed the comeback. "We are learning to play with each other and play with the right level of emotion," said Yelin. "Emotion is good but you can't go crazy like it is the match winning point on every kill. We are learning this as we find our identity as a team."
In the final set, U of L ran out to a 16-8 lead and hit a toasty .517 to finish the job. Arslanbekova, Maci Wachtel and Lindsey Mango each had 12 digs. Sophomore Gosia Lech added five blocks and had seven kills for the Cardinals. Belmont's Carly Frazier had 12 kills and two aces.
