Louisville Defeats Tulane, 3-1
November 17, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 17, 2000
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Louisville capitalized upon a sluggish Tulane offense to post a 3-1 win in the quarterfinals of the Healthy Choice Conference USA Tournament on Friday night. The 22-7 Cardinals, the third seed in the tournament, advance to the semifinals for the fifth time in six seasons. Louisville plays the winner of the Cincinnati-Charlotte quarterfinal on Saturday at 3 p.m. Sixth-seeded Tulane closes the year at 17-15.
Louisville posted 15-4 and 15-3 wins in the first two games, thanks in large part to .097 hitting from Tulane. However, the Green Wave battled back for a 16-14 win in game three.
"We fought hard but had a few lulls that killed us," Tulane coach Betsy Becker Ferrer said, referring to the Cardinals' decisive 15-8 victory in the final game. "We weren't able to take advantage of their mistakes."
Louisville entered the tournament ranked 12th nationally with 3.16 blocks per game and recorded 12 in the four-game match with the Green Wave.
"Our blocking was strong tonight, which frustrated their hitters," Louisville coach Leonid Yelin said. "As our hitting goes, so do we. We were especially effective when Sarah Drury was serving."
Drury had four of the Cardinals' service aces, while Sonja Percan's 14 kills led three Louisville players in double figures. Tulane's Kim Sentmore led everyone with 19 kills and nine digs. Erin Dobyanski added 11 kills and 12 digs.
TULANE 4 3 16 8LOUISVILLE 15 15 14 15
STATISTICAL LEADERS:Kills: Sentmore (TUL) 19Attempts: Sentmore (TUL) 50Assists: Ding (LOU) 43Digs: L. Drury (LOU) 15Service Aces: S. Drury (LOU) 4Total Blocks: Mercer (LOU) 6
