University of Louisville
at Arizona<br>Four Points University Plaza Wildcat Classic
Volleyball Falls to Host Arizona in Shootout in Tucson
September 11, 2004 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 11, 2004
The No. 18-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team could not overcome the Arizona home court advantage as the Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season, falling 3-1 to the Wildcats.
U of L moved its record to 5-1 with the 20-30, 30-26, 28-30, 25-30 loss to the No. 19 ranked Wildcats (5-2).
"We knew it would be very difficult to go into their arena and pull off a victory. They have a wonderful home court advantage with great crowds," said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach. "Plus we saw them handle Pepperdine in three so we knew we had our work cut out for us."
Louisville's Jennifer Hoffman and Bing Sun earned All-Tournament honors. Arizona junior Jennifer Abernathy was named MVP of the tournament along with Meghan Cumpston and setter Stephanie Butkus joining her on the all-tournament team. Pepperdine's Christina Hinds rounded out the all-tournament squad.
"This was a really, really good win for us," Arizona head coach David Rubio said."The thing that I'm most excited about was that we competed really well. Wenever folded our tent or hoped they would make mistakes. We were aggressive,which was important since Louisville kept the pressure onthroughout."
After a close start to game one, Arizona slowly built its lead to as many asseven on several occasions before using a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach. The Wildcats hit .306 on the game and held the Cardinals to just .108. Abernathy and Cumpston led Arizona with six kills each, while Butkus dished out 16 assists.
In game two, the Wildcats took an early lead, but Louisville slowly chipped away at it, then used a 5-0 run to take a three-point lead (14-11). Arizonatied it at 17, but soon found itself down by five, 24-19. The Wildcats cut it to two late (28-26),but lost 30-26. Arizona was out-hit .450 to .209 and out-blocked 4-2.
In a closely contested third game, Arizona used a 5-1 run to take a 22-17 lead, but the Cardinals quickly tied it at 26 and again at 27. The Wildcats then scored two straight points and went on to win 30-28. Cumpston led Arizona with seven kills, followed by Abernathy with five.
The fourth and final game was a story of runs, as every time the Wildcats built a lead, Louisville quickly cut away at it. When it seemed as though Arizona had the game in control, leading 23-16, the Cardinals scored five straight points to make it a two-point game. Both teams then traded points for the remainder of the game and Arizona won 30-25.
2004 Four Points University Plaza Wildcat Classic All-Tournament Team
MVP: Jennifer Abernathy, Arizona
Stephanie Butkus, Arizona
Meghan Cumpston, Arizona
Bing Sun, Louisville
Jennifer Hoffman, Louisville
Christina Hinds, Pepperdine
