University of Louisville
Cincinnati
Volleyball Upends Cincinnati 3-1
November 09, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 9, 2001
CINCINNATI -- Sonja Percan had 28 kills and four blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over league-leading Cincinnati in the Conference USA final regular season match.
Louisville, raises its league record to 13-3 and 20-5 overall. Cincinnati, who clinched the No. 1 seed for the tournament last weekend, falls to 14-2 in C-USA and 18-6 overall. The Cardinals won 30-19, 30-28, 26-30, 30-26.
"They had no answer for Sonja Percan tonight," said Leonid Yelin. "They are a great blocking team and we were able to stay focused and figure a way around their formidable defense."
After a lackluster start that saw the Cardinals fall behind 11-5, Sonja Percan returned to the lineup and sparked a big run for U of L. She had five kills on eight attacks and when she rotated out of the front row, the Cardinals had a one point lead. Anastasia Zaitseva took over and led U of L to on a 13-2 run, that included nine straight. The Cardinals outhit the Bearcats .389 to .081.
In the second game, the well-matched teams traded points and the lead back and forth. After Cincinnait built a narrow two-point lead at 24-22 on pair of Louisville misses, the Cardinals answered by retaking the lead at 26-25 on a pair of misses by Trish Ladusaw. Coach Reed Sunahara called time out and Becky Stahl had a cross court kill to tie. The teams tied again at 27 and 28 and then Zaitseva and Percan had the final two kills respectively to ice the game. The hitting percentages evened up with Louisville slightly edging the Bearcats at .244 to .214.
Up 13-11 in the third game, Louisville allowed UC to embark on a 10-3 run and force the Cardinals to call timeout to regroup. They responded with three straight points to come within three at 21-19 and Sunahara called time out to try to change the momentum back. The ploy worked as the Bearcats scored four straight points, two from U of L errors. After Yelin used his final time out trailing 25-20. Percan had two kills and a block to keep the Cardinals in the game but two straight kills by Bonita Wise ended the game 30-26.
In the final game, Louisville popped out to a 22--12 lead. The Cardinals fell into a hitting swoon, and Cincinnati scored nine straight points , seven of which were U of L errors. Two kills by Julie DuPont tied the game at 23. Percan snapped out of the slump with three straight kills. A kill by Zaitseva took U of L to game point but UC scored twice more before a kill by Lesley Drury gave U of L the match.
"We stayed with our strength and we didn't let them grab the momentum like they did at our place when we won the first two games and then couldn't pull out the win," said Yelin.
