University of Louisville
at DePaul *
Volleyball Beats Blue Demons 3--1
October 07, 2002 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 7, 2002
CHICAGO -- Outside hitter Bing Sun had 22 kills to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over DePaul in Conference USA volleyball Saturday night.
U of L raised its record to 12-3 and 3-0 in the league with the 30-16, 26-30, 30-22, 30-26 win. DePaul drops to 3-14 and 0-2 in the C-USA.
"It wasn't one of our strongest hitting games," said Leonid Yelin. "Our passing hurt us early on, but we got the points when we needed them."
The match started with Louisville popping out to a 9-2 lead and increasing it to 13-5 before DePaul had to call a timeout. The Blue Demons could get no closer and had to call another timeout, trailing 22-14. They scored just twice more to lose 30-16. Louisville only hit .171 but 12 hitting errors by DePaul helped the Cardinal cause. Bing Sun led the Cardinals with six kills. Anastasia Zaitseva had a pair of aces.
In the second game DePaul took the lead early and had an eight-point run to increase to a 16-8 lead. Louisville answered with a 6-1 run of their own and forced a DePaul timeout. Louisville got as close as three at 24-21 when Benny Flynn connected for a kill.DePaul reached game point on an ace but had to squelch a spirited Cardinal comeback. U of L scored four points before DePaul could take the game 30-26 on a kill by Lara Marks. The Blue Demons DePaul's Laura Marks had six kills in the game as the team's hitting improved to .209 to U of L's .043.
Louisville took control early in the third game with a 12-4 lead. DePaul began to score in clumps and got to within three at 17-14 on a service error by Zaitseva. Cardinal hitting finally showed signs of life when they reeled off six straight points to get to game point. DePaul managed to score three points before U of L won 30-22. Sun had seven kills to lead the Cardinals in that set.
It was a momentum battle in the fourth game, with both teams trading runs. Louisville built the narrowest of margins at 16-14 before DePaul scored three straight to take the lead at 17-16. After Yelin called time out, U of L retook the lead at 19-18 and prompted a Blue Demon time out. DePaul used its last timeout when Zaitseva smashed home a winner to go up 24-21. Louisville reopened a lead at 27-24 on a DePaul lift call. But a kill by Katie Engle and a miss by U of L brought the Blue Demons to within one at 27-26. DePaul setter Amie West was called for being under the net and Louisville had a pair of Lena Ustymenko kills to end the match with the 30-26 win.
Louisville got an offensive boost from Flynn, who ended the match with 12 kills and five blocks. Ustymenko and Stacey Mercer added 11 and 10 respectively.
DePaul was led by Engel's 16 kills.
