University of Louisville
Pittsburgh
Volleyball Beats Pitt 3-1
November 05, 2006 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2006
Tatyana Kolesnikova had 13 kills, five aces and a block to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-1 win over Pitt in BIG EAST volleyball action Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals won 30-22, 30-19, 24-30, 30-21.
Louisville improves to 18-6 and 11-1 in the BIG EAST with the Panthers falling to 20-8 and 8-4 in the league. U of L hit .280 for the match and outblocked Pitt 14-4. The Cardinals notched eight aces. Rui Liu led all blockers with seven.
"We are learning to keep our poise when our opponents make a hard run at us," said Leonid Yelin, U of L head coach. "Every match is important now at this stage of the season and to win on the road against a well-coached Pitt team is very nice."
After trailing by three at 11-8, the Cardinals used an 11-3 run to go up 19-14 and force a Pitt timeout. The Panthers used their other timeout trailing 25-16, but could not make up the deficit. An Ana Yartseva Stewart kill took the Cardinals to game point. Pitt scored three times before Tatyana Kolesnikova bounced one on the ten-foot line for the 30-22 win. The Cardinals outhit Pitt .382 to .114 and two blocks to none. Yartseva Stewart led with five kills and an ace.
Pitt's hitting deserted them in the second game when the Panthers hit -.061 with only eight kills, ten errors on 33 attacks. U of L hit .300 and had four blocks. After trailing 15-6, Pitt called timeout to try to swing moment. At that point five of Pitt's six points were Louisville errors. The Panthers could get no closer than ten, falling 30-19. Setter Samantha Dabbs led the Cardinals with three kills on four attacks.
Pitt used a 9-2 run at the end of the third game to come back from a one point deficit to take the game 30-24. U of L hitting cooled considerably at .190 to Pitt's .324. The Panther's Kelly Campbell had seven kills on eight swings for a .875 pace.
Pitt fell behind early at 10-3 in the final game but had a 7-1 run to come within two at 12-10. U of L reeled off four straight to force a Panther timeout. After keeping it tight, the Cardinals finally broke free with a 9-2 run and then took the match 30-21.
U of L returns home for the final two BIG EAST matches next weekend when USF visits on Saturday, followed by Georgetown on Sunday both matches are at 2 p.m. in Cardinal Arena.
