University of Louisville
USF
Volleyball Ends Streak at South Florida
November 10, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 10, 2000
Michelle Collier had a school-record 41 kills to lead South Florida to 3-1 win over the University of Louisville volleyball team to clinch at least a share of the regular season Conference USA title.
The Cardinals snapped their 13-match winning streak with the 8-15, 16-14, 15-11, 15-6 loss and drop to 20-7 and 11-4 in C-USA. South Florida bumps its record up to 24-4 and 14-1 in Conference play.
"We knew we had a tough task ahead of us to try and beat them on their home court," said U of Lhead coach Leonid Yelin.
After falling behind 5-2 in the first game, the Cardinals used an 11 unanswered point run to go up 13-5. South Florida used both timeouts to try to interrupt the run but could managed just three more points on two Louisville hitting errors and an ace by Kelly Mathiasmeier. After reaching game point on a blocking error by Rachelle Paul, the Bulls staved off two game piont opportunities before a Collier hitting error punctuated the game. The Cardinals hit .386 to the Bulls' .167.
Louisville dropped the closely contested second game.The game which featured seven ties, saw both coaches effectively use timeouts to chill momentum swings, but in the end, after tying at 13, USF managed two straight points to win.
"We may have tried to be too aggressive with the serve and you can't score if you don't have the ball," said Yelin, whose team had 10 service errors in the second game and 25 overall.
South Florida, which has already clinched the National Division, jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third game. Louisville scored a pair on an ace by Melissa Karrer and a kill by Zaitseva. However, the Cardinals let the Bulls go on a five-point rampage to go up 10-3. The Cards seemed to regroup after Yelin called timeout as they went on a seven point run sparked by strong serving by Sonja Percan who served for five of those points. U of L took the lead at 11-10 on a kill by Zaitseva. With two straight aces by Collier helping USF regain the lead at 12-11, three straight Cardinal misses ended their run and gave the game to the Bulls.
Louisville struggled in the fourth game letting USF pull to a 10-4 lead. Cardinal hitting errors accounted for six of the final eight points.
The Cardinals had four players record double digit kills led by Bing Sun's 20 and Lesley Drury's 18. Zaitseva had 15 with McClain adding 11 and three block solos.
