University of Louisville
Marquette
Volleyball Falls 3-2 to Marquette
September 30, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 30, 2000
Milwaukee, WI -- Meghan Markowski had 22 kills to lead Marquette to a 3-2 win over the University of Louisville in Conference USA volleyball action last night in Marquette Gym.
Louisville lost 118-16, 2-15, 15-2, 11-15, 11-15 to drop its record to 7-6 and 1-3 in the league. Marquette improves to 3-1 in the C-USA and 4-11 for the season.
"Marquette did a good job of keeping the ball in play and taking advantage of our lapses," said Leonid Yelin. "They were able to withstand our rallies and were patient."
Louisville started sluggishly in the first game when the Golden Eagles pulled out to a 12-9 lead. The Cardinals used strong blocking and a pair of service aces to get to game point at 14-12. However, a pair of U of L misses tied the game at 14 and forced a U of L time out. Stacey Mercer scored the 15th point for the Cardinals when she killed an overpass but then another pair of Louisville misses put Marquette up 16-15 at game point. The Cardinals staved off game point and then scored on a dump by Jing Ding, an ace by Anastasia Zaitseva and a kill by Bing Sun to seal the win. Marquette outhit the Cardinals .241 to .197.
Marquette dominated a disorganized Cardinal squad in the second game, blasting out to a 12-1 lead that proved insurmountable. The Golden Eagles had a hot and in hitting with 16 kills on 37 attempts for a .351 hitting percentage. In contrast, the Cardinals had eight kills and eight errors for a .000 hitting percentage.
After the break, Louisville barrelled out to a 11-0 lead in game three. Marquette scored its only two points on a pair of aces. As frigidly as they hit in the second set was as hot as the Cardinals hit in the third with a .571hitting percentage. Mercer led the way with five kills on just six attacks and no errors.
The fourth game started with a Louisville momentum and ended with Marquette reeling off eight straight points to win. Up 11-7, Cardinals couldn't quell the Eagle rally. Meghan Markowski powered the Marquette rally with six kills on 10 attacks.
In the rally-scored fifth game, Marquette edged out to an 11-6 lead forcing U of L to burn both its time outs. The Cardinals battled back to within two at 12-10 on an ace by Zaitseva. However, the Eagles outscored U of L 3-1 to take the match.
The Cardinals were led by Kelly McClain and Zaitseva who each had 17 kills. Zaitseva had a season-high, career-high five aces. The Cards play DePaul in Chicago today at 8 p.m.
