University of Louisville
vs. Southern Miss<BR>(Conference USA Tourn.)
Volleyball Advances to Semi-Final With Sweep of USM
November 23, 2002 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 23, 2002
CHICAGO -- Outside hitter Bing Sun had 13 kills, three aces and seven blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 30-20, 33-31, 30-24 win over Southern Miss in the second round of the Conference USA Championship.
U of L, which had a first-round bye, improved to 24-4 and advanced to the semi-finals and will play the winner of the Saint Louis/Marquette. Southern Miss closes its season at 16-15.
In the first game, Louisville powered out to a 10-1 lead and then withstood a Southern Miss rally to gain the 30-20 win.. The Eagles mounted an 8-2 run to pull to 21-16. However, the early deficit proved too costly. The Cardinals hit .278 to USM's .114. USM had four service errors and were outblocked 3-1. Junior outside hitter Benny Flynn had four kills on five attacks and no errors to lead the Cardinals. USM's Andrea Bush had four kills on eight swings to lead USM.
"You worry when your opponent has played and you haven't played in almost a week, but we started out strong and we didn't seem to miss a beat," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin.
Southern Miss spotted U of L the first five points of the second game and forced Coach Santiago Restrepo to call time out. His Eagles responded and pulled withing two at 14-12 when Louisville had called time out to allow setter Jennifer Craven get her thumb checked out after diving for an errant ball. The Eagles took their first lead at 25-24 on a kill by Bush forcing U of L to use its other timeout to regroup. The two teams tied at 26, 27, 29 and although U of L reached 30 first, the game went to deuce before a kill by Bing Sun and a USM miss tipped the game to the Cardinals 33-31. Louisville's hitting percentage cooled to .130 but the Cards added three aces to its total and outblocked USM 7-2. Bush had nine kills in the set to lead the Eagles. U of L's Sun had five kills and two aces.
Southern Miss did not allow the Cardinals to scoot out to an early lead in the third game and trailed by only one at 16-15 when Amy Truong had two straight service aces. Two kills by Stacey Mercer and a pair of USM miscues helped the Cardinals reopen a leadat 20-17. Restrepo called timeout at 22-18 but the Cardinals had a 5-2 run down the homestretch to win 30-24.
U of L outblocked USM 12-5 and outhit them .225 to .121. Freshman Lena Ustymenko had 12 kills and three aces in the winning effort. Bush ended up with a match-high 16 kills and 14 digs to lead USM. Nicki Tribble added 10 kills and 10 digs.
