University of Louisville
IPFW
Volleyball Beats IPFW
September 05, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 5, 2009
Freshman outside hitter Lola Arslanbekova had a match-high 19 kills and four aces to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over Indiana Purdue at Ft. Wayne in college volleyball action at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge Saturday morning in Muncie, Ind.
U of L improves to 3-2 with the 25-19, 25-17, 20-25, 25-18 win. IPFW falls to 3-4. The Cardinals will play Ball State this evening at 7:30 in Worthen Arena. U of L hit .322 and had 11 blocks and nine aces for the win. IPFW recorded six aces, 9.5 blocks but hit just .206 for the match.
"Teams like IPFW, who don't give up and battle to the end are a good test of our ability to finish," said Leonid Yelin. "This is especially true with a young team. We adjusted and closed strong."
IPFW stayed close in the first set, tying at 16 but .353 hitting by Louisville kept the Mastodons from building on that momentum as the Cardinals went on a 7-1 run down the stretch for the win. Gwen Rucker had four kills on five attacks and a block to lead the Cards to the 25-19 win.
The Cardinals used a 6-1 run midway through the second set to go up 19-12 and then continued to pull away for the 25-17 win. Lecia Brown's three kills and two blocks led U of L as the Cards hit .333 in the set. Rebekah Roehm led IPFW with six kills and two blocks.
In the third set, after IPFW tied at five, the Mastodons never trailed, hitting .407 as a team and tallied four blocks to beat U of L 25-20 and force a fourth set. U of L hitting cooled to .167 although Lola Arslanbekova added five kills in the losing effort.
In the final set, U of L popped out to a 12-7 lead and held off a charging Mastodon squad that reeled off six straight to get within one at 14-13. But the Cardinals did not relinquish the lead and Lecia Brown had four points down the stretch for the 25-18 win. U of L hit .407 in the set and had three blocks.
Brown tallied 12 kills and five blocks for the Cardinals with Rucker adding seven kills and four blocks. Lindsey Mango had a match-high 15 digs.
