University of Louisville
at Ohio State<BR>(NCAA Second Round)
Volleyball Falls to Ohio State in NCAA 2nd Round
December 07, 2002 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 7, 2002
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Outside hitter Stacey Gordon had 31 kills to lead host Ohio State to a three-game sweep of the University of Louisville volleyball team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in St. John Arena Saturday night.
"Their outside hitter Stacey Gordon was the best hitter we have seen all year and her setter mixed it up for her really well," said senior libero Sarah Drury. "Our block did fine but we just couldn't contain her. "
U of L ended its season at 28-6 with the 30-26, 30-28, 30-24 loss. Ohio State advances to the Sweet Sixteen and posts a 21-10 record.
"It was a good match tonight," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "A couple of things didn't work out for us. But we were beaten by a better team tonight. It was a great tournament atmosphere."
U of L hit a toasty .307 and outblocked the Buckeyes 7-6 but OSU had 62 kills to U of L's 50 and added five aces.
"You know that you are up against a good team when you hit .307 and it isn't enough," said Yelin.
In the first game, the two teams traded points in the early going before the Buckeyes scored five unanswered points to go up 15-10. After the Cardinals called time out , they came back and tied at 19 and began trading points back and forth again.
"We stayed in the game until about 20 but then we didn't close it." said Yelin.
OSU had a mini-run of three straight points to go up 26-23 and Yelin used his other timeout. Gordon scored four of the final five points in the game to lead the Buckeyes to a 30-26 win. Louisville hit .250 to Ohio State's .390. U of L was edged in blocking 3-1.
In the second game, U of L fell behind 11-6 in the early going but scraped away at the lead to tie at 18 on a Benny Flynn service ace. Yelin called timeout when OSU scored three straight to go up 22-19. Once again, U of L answered by tying at 25 on a Lena Ustymenko kill and solo block.
"We could push for two or three points but just couldn't push through to build a big enough lead," said Sun.
Ohio State got to game point on a kill by Gordon but U of L scored again to pull within one at 29-28. Gordon had the final kill as OSU won 30-28. Although U of L had three aces and improved its hitting to .324 in the second set, it wasn't enough to get past the Buckeyes. Gordon had 11 kills to lead OSU. Sun had nine for U of L.
In the third game, U of L maintained a lead until 12-11 on a Shelly Draeger kill. The teams traded points until OSU went on a three-point run to go up 23-20 and forcing a U of L timeout. U of L came back and cut the deficit to one at 24-23 on a kills by Bing Sun. However, the Buckeyes went 5-1 down the stretch to clinch the match.
Sun ended the match with 19 kills and two blocks. Ustymenko had eight with Flynn and Mercer each adding seven.
