University of Louisville
Houston
Volleyball Sweeps Houston
November 12, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2000
Houston -- Stacey Mercer had 16 kills to lead the University of Louisville volleyball team to a 15-11, 15-7, 15-8 sweep of Houston in the Conference USA regular season finale.
The Cardinals boosted their record to 21-7 and 12-4 in the league. Houston falls to 19-8 and 11-5 in Conference USA. The win assures the Cardinals of a third seed in next week's tournament.
"We had strong passing and were able to utilize our middle hitters very effectively," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin, whose two middles combined for 29 of Louisville's 60 kills.
The Cardinals were also able to put the 25 service errors they committed against South Florida behind them and record eight aces and only 7 service errors.
"There is no question that we served better this match," said Yelin.
In the first game, the Cardinals popped out to a 6-1 lead but let the Cougars go on a pair of runs that brought them to within one point at 11-10. A pair of kills for points by Lesley Drury took Louisville to game point and a kill by Jing Ding gave Louisville the 15-11 win. The Cardinals outhit the Cougars .283 to .152.
In the second game, Houston couldn't sustain enough runs to overcome the 7-4 Louisville lead in the early going. Once again hitting percentage favored the Cardinals at .261 to .196.
Houston unravelled in the third game, allowing U of L to get up 10-4 before launching a 4-1 run that brought them to 12-8 but an ace by Stacey Mercer, a UH miss and a solo block by Kelly McClain ended the match.
Louisville's other middle, Lesley Drury had 13 kills, nine digs and five blocks. Sonja Percan came off the bench to record 12 kills.
