University of Louisville
ST. JOHN'S
Volleyball Sweeps St. John's in BIG EAST Opener
September 23, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2011
Lola Arslanbekova had a match-high 14 kills and four blocks to lead the University of Louisville volleyball team to a 25-19, 25-14, 25-23 sweep of St. John's as BIG EAST action opened Friday night in the inaugural match in the KFC Yum! Center.
"The KFC Yum! Center crowd of 2,148 was amazing and I think we were just a bit jittery in our debut down here, " said U of L head coach Anne Kordes. "We need a couple more matches down here to feel like it is our home venue. At the end of the day, the win is the thing and we will shore a few things up and improve as we go along. I am super happy."
U of L had 43 kills to SJU's 27 and outhit the Red Storm .299 to .103. The Cards outblocked SJU 10-6. Arslanbekova had her third-straight double-double, adding 11 digs to her 15 kills. U of L's Emily Juhl had 12 kills and four aces. The Red Storm was led by Anzelika Lukjanska's nine kills.
In tight first set, neither team could build any kind of lead until Louisville managed to go up four at 16-12 and force an SJU timeout. The Cards responded with three more unanswered points that included an ace by Lola Arslanbekova and a block by Kaitlynn James and Brook Mattingly to break it open at 18-12 and force Joanne Persico to burn her last timeout. The Cardinal held off a late St. John's rally that came as close as 23-18 but U of L got to game point on a kill by Arslanbekova and then SJU's Aleksandra Wachowicz went wide for set point. Neither team was on fire offensively, with U of L edging the Red Storm .143 - .065 in hitting with the Cards owning a 3-2 lead in blocks.
U of L popped out to a 5-0 lead early in the second set and then built the lead to eight at 10-2 with SJU using both timeouts to try to spark the Red Storm offense. Leading by 10 at 20-10, U of L held off a short-lived Red Storm rally and cruised to the 25-14 win. The Cardinals hit .500 in the set with Arslanbekova notching seven kills and three of U of L's five blocks for the set. Emily Juhl added four kills to the winning effort. Cardinal hitting heated up to .500 to SJU's -.042.
In the third set, U of L used a 5-1 run to go up 10-7 and force an SJU timeout . Down as many as five, SJU cut the lead to one at 18-17, but U of L used a timeout at 21-20 after the teams started trading points to make the final push. A kill by Tanya Lukyanenko, a service error by St. John's and an Emily Juhl kill tipped the set and match to the Cardinals.
U of L returns to action against UConn on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center.
