University of Louisville
TEXAS
No. 15 Volleyball falls to No. 9 Texas in Five
October 08, 2012 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 8, 2012
University of Louisville outside hitter Lola Arslanbekova's season-high 29 kills were not enough as No. 9 Texas escaped with a 3-2 win over the No. 15 Cardinals volleyball team Monday night at the KFC Yum! Center.
"Texas is huge and athletic and the best team we have faced along with Penn State," said U of L head coach Anne Kordes. "Lola was just phenomenal. We rely and her and she never lets us down. The kid goes hard and 73 swings is just a ton of swings. If we can get the way we were going tonight in early October, there is no telling how good we will be in December."
Louisville moves to 16-3 with the 21-25, 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 15-10 loss. The Cards hit .201 but had had 9.5 blocks and 98 digs. Caitlin Welch had a career-high, match-high 37 digs. Middle blocker Gwen Rucker had 14 kills and match-high seven blocks. The Longhorns hit .229 and were led by Haley Eckerman's 27 kills and 23 digs.
The Cardinals used .341 hitting to hang with Texas. After trading points, U of L finally gained some breathing room with a 4-1 run late in the first set to go uyoui 21-18. Texas countered with a two kills before U of L got to set point on an error by Sha'Dare McNeal. Lola Arslanbekova had the winning kill for the 25-21 win. Arslanbekova had seven first set kills and got help from Brooke Mattingly's three kills and a block.
The second game unfolded much the same as the first with teams trading points, but this time it was Texas that went on a 4-0 run to go up 12-9. Louisville tied at 13 and forced a Longhorn timeout. UT went on a 6-2 run after regrouping and then it was the Cards who had to call timeout, trailing 19-15. Coming out of the card timeout, Lola missed but Tanya Lukyanenko picked her up with a kill to make the score 20-16. Texas scored after a long scrambling rally to go up 21-16 and Kordes used her last timeout to make an adjustment. Gwen Rucker scored twice but the Cards were blocked twice to tip the set to the Longhorns 25-18.
After the break, the score stayed dead even until UT went on a 3-0 run to go up 13-10 and spark a Cardinal timeout. The Cards came out of the huddle and went on a 4-1 run and Texas decided to call timeout to reset. U of L went on a 5-2 run and the Longhorns had to burn their last timeout when the Cards went up 20-17. Texas answered with a 3-0 run to tie at 20 before U of L called timeout. U of L countered with a 4-1 run to get to set point on a Gwen Rucker kill. A Texas hitting error gave U of L a 2-1 lead in sets.
Texas built a narrow lead at 11-9 in the fourth set but the Cards were able to tie at 15 on two errors by Haley Eckerman. U of L fell behind two at 18-16 but a kill by Rucker and an ace by Kaitlynn James tied at 18. The teams continued to trade points until U of L was able to string together two points to go up 23-22. After Texas called timeout, the Longhorns got to set point on a kill by Sha'Dare O'Neal. A service error by UT gave U of L hope, but a Cardinal miss tied the sets at two with a 26-24 win.
After tying at four, U of L fell behind 8-5 at the switch. Texas had a hot hand and pulled ahead to 13-7 but the Cards scored twice. A service error by Katie George gave UT match point and a kill by Bailey Webster gave the match to Texas.
U of L returns to conference action this weekend when it travels to St. John's on Oct. 12 and UConn on Oct. 14.
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