University of Louisville
<B>BALL STATE</B>
#17 Volleyball Edged by Ball State
November 29, 2003 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 29, 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Sarah Obras had 26 kills and 16 digs to lead Ball State to a 3-2 upset win over No. 17-ranked Louisville in the Conference USA/MAC Challenge Saturday afternoon.
Ball State improves to 18-16 with the 23-30, 29-31, 30-21, 30-26, 30-26, 18-16 win. Louisville moves to 23-5 as they conclude their regular season play. U of L has the Conference USA's automatic qualifier in the NCAA Championship Tournament. The pairings will be announced on Sunday at 8 p.m.
"I am sorry for the seniors for the loss on their final home game, " said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach. "But as a team, I hope we got it out of our system and use it as a wakeup call so as to go into the NCAA's focused and ready to play hard."
Ball State used aggressive serving and tenacious defense found a way to win the match despite being out hit and outblocked 11-7.
U of L hit .300 in the first game and seemed to have the match well in hand going into the break after quelling a Ball State rally late in the second game. After the break, the Cardinals' hitting cooled to .146 and BSU leapt on the opportunity for the 30-21 win. U of L dropped the fourth game despite outhitting BSU .275 to .200. The Cardinals were hard-pressed in the final game with only Bing Sun and Sonja Percan seemingly as the only two weapons firing and U of L took the loss 18-16.
"We had 13 service errors and were aced ten times, you need to make your opponents work harder than that to get 23 points," said Yelin.
Percan, playing in her final home game in Cardinal Arena, had a team-high 23 kills, six aces and 11 digs as she did more than her share to buoy the Cardinals efforts. Sun ended the match with 16 kills, 17 digs and six blocks, but it was not enough. Freshman Ana Yartseva came off the bench to notch nine kills and 4 blocks for U of L.
"Sonja was carrying us and we were hoping that someone else would get hot. She hit .553 and had six aces, you can't ask for more than that as a coach," said Yelin of his fifth year senior.
Kirby Gibson added 17 kills and Kelly Cochran had 16 kills in BSU's victory. Libero Stephanie Keller had a match high 34 digs.
