University of Louisville
at Cincinnati
No. 6-ranked Volleyball Beat Back Bearcats
October 16, 2005 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 16, 2005
Lena Ustymenko had a career-high 29 kills to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over BIG EAST opponent Cincinnati Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati.
The Cardinals won 26-30, 30-17, 30-26 and 30-28 and stayed unbeaten at 18-0 and 6-0 in league play. UC moves to 12-7 and 4-2 in the BIG EAST.
"The key for our defense is our block and until we got that going, we were scrambling," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "Ana Yartseva came alive and Lena kept us in the game until that point. This is just always a hard fought match when these two teams get together."
Cincinnati used a 6-1 run in the first game to go up 16-10 and never relinquished the lead. The Cardinals went down swinging however, with a four point swing to bring them to within two at 23-21 and force a UC time-out. The Bearcats regrouped well and went up 25-21 when Yelin used his first timeout. He had to use another one almost immediately as the Bearcats went to 27-22. The Cardinals scored three straight to come within three at 28-25 when Reed Sunahara called time to try and quell the Cardinal rally. Two kills by Jenny Custer gave the Bearcats the game at 30-26. U of L hit just .250 to UC's .366.
Bearcat hitting chilled to .000 in the second game and Louisville seized the opportunity and used a 6-0 run to go up 15-8. The Bearcats couldn't recover and got only as close as seven at 21-14 down the stretch. UC scored just three more points after that as U of L won 30-17 to even the game score at one apiece. Ustymenko had seven kills in that game for the Cards.
UC came out strong in the beginning of game three, scooting out to a 7-1 lead. Yelin called timeout after which the Cardinals chipped away at the UC lead until they got within two at 15-13. Sunahara called timeout and the Bearcats responded by widening the lead to 21-16 before Yelin used his last timeout. U of L responded with a 7-3 run to come within one at 24-23 and elicit a Bearcat timeout. U of L fought back and took the lead for got at 27-26 and then scored three straight to take a 2-1 game lead. U of L outhit UC .267 to .176 with Ustymenko leading the way with seven kills.
U of L fell behind in the fourth game but used a five point run to take the lead at 19-18. The Cardinals built the lead to three at 23-20 but two straight kills by Jessie Nevitt brought UC within striking distance at 23-22. Yelin called time out and the Cardinals managed to stay ahead, leading 28-26 when Sunahara called time out. U of L got to game point on a miss by Nevitt. Maria Pongonis put down a ball to save match point but Lena Ustymenko slammed one home to take the game and match.
A University of Louisville fan prophetically yelled out at Shoemaker Center, "No matter what you do, we still have Lena!" during a quiet moment and he couldn't have been more right.
Ustymenko ended the match with 15 digs and an ace to add to her 29 kills and .413 hitting. Hoffman added 11 kills and four blocks while Yartseva had 10 kills to go with her eight blocks.
UC was led by freshman Jessie Nevitt's 19 kills and three blocks.
