University of Louisville
MEMPHIS
Volleyball Tames Tigers in The American Opener
September 27, 2013 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2013
Maya McClendon had 17 kills and nine digs to lead the University of Louisville volleyball team past the Memphis Tigers 25-16, 25-21, 21-25, 25-14, in the first American Athletic Conference match of the season for both teams Friday night at the KFC Yum! Center.
"It's never fun to go into a match without a full lineup. Injuries forced us into different lineups but we need to respond to adversity better," said Louisville head coach Anne Kordes. "Whether it is a veteran or a freshman out there, we need to take better care of the ball. You can't have that many unforced errors because all the teams in the league are coming after us."
For the match the Cards hit .294 to Memphis' .129. Louisville, 5-6, was led by 42 assists from Katie George and 23 digs by Welch. The Cards also got 12 kills each from Randi Ewing and Brooke Mattingly, who added five blocks as well. Memphis drops to 8-6 and was led Viktorija Teivane's 10 kills and nine digs.
The first set was tightly contested early as neither team could go on any kind of run. The Cardinals never trailed and they were able to open up a 12-8 lead. Louisville outscored Memphis 13-6 the rest of the way to close out the set, winning 25-14. The Cards hit .500 for the set and were led by four kills each from Maya McClendon and Janelle Jenkins.
The Tigers jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the second set behind an early 4-0 run. Neither team led by more than two points until Louisville used a 6-3 run to take a 15-12 lead, only to see Memphis battle back to tie the score at 16-16. The Cards never trailed the rest of the way outscoring the Tigers 9-5 to close it out 25-21. Maya McClendon had a stellar second set with six kills. Katie George added 14 assists and Caitlin Welch contributed 12 digs for the set.
The third set saw the Tigers surge to an 8-3 lead using a 7-0 run. The Cards crawled their way back to make the score 11-10 Tigers, but Louisville was unable to take the lead. The teams battled back and forth until Memphis put the set away with a 6-3 run to win 25-21.
In the fourth set Louisville used a pair of early runs, 5-0 and 6-0, to build a 14-7 lead. Another 6-3 run by the Cards gave them their biggest lead of the set at 20-10. Memphis hung around until a kill by Carly Sahagian gave Louisville match point at 24-13. A hitting error by Memphis gave the Cards the win 25-14.
The Cardinals return to action on Sunday as they take on Temple University at the KFC Yum! Center at 2 p.m.
"It was a great crowd and I wish we could have shown them a bit more. It was a win and we can build on it and get ready for a big match on Sunday."
