University of Louisville
Middle Tennessee State <br>(NCAA - First Round)
Volleyball Falls to Middle Tennessee in NCAAs
December 01, 2006 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 1, 2006
Tatyana Kolesnikova had 16 kills, four aces and three blocks but it was not enough, as Middle Tennessee outlasted the Cardinals 24-30, 30-19, 12-30, 30-25, 16-14 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Championship at the Kentucky International Convention Center Friday night in Louisville.
The Cardinals end their season at 25-7 and the Blue Raiders improved to 27-7. Middle Tennessee will face Ohio State, which swept Belmont in the opening game, at 5 p.m. at KICC.
"We have the greatest fans and I want to encourage them to come out and support the game of volleyball. We have been lucky to get to host often and the part of the reason is our wonderful fans," said U of L coach Leonid Yelin.
U of L hit .245 to MT's .220 and outblocked the Blue Raiders 18-11. Middle Tennessee had 10 service errors and its 17 service errors did not come back to haunt them. The loss ended the career of U of L's two-time All-American Ana Yartseva Stewart who had 11 kills and seven blocks. Fellow senior Stephanie Marsh had nine kills, two aces and four blocks.
The two were attempting to become the first U of L players to lead their team to a school best three Sweet Sixteens.
"It was a bit of a rebuilding year, but it didn't always seem that way because our four newcomers are so talented, so we had our work cut out for us," said Marsh. "It is just starting to sink in that it is over. It is not a shock to get beat, teams get beat all the times, there are upsets every night. But this is the NCAA, you have to come to play."
U of L used an 11-3 run in the first game to pull to a 22-13 lead. MTU battled to within six at 26-20 but the Cardinals' .429 hitting shut down the rally. Svetlana . Dukule led with five kills. Stewart had six blocks as U of L outblocked MT 7-1. Middle Tennessee had three aces, all by Alicia Leamu'u .
"Middle Tennessee came out and fought hard and played like they had nothing to lose because they were playing a school with a lot of volleyball history," said Marsh.
A 10-1 run by the Blue Raiders took MT to an 18-10 lead. Another 7-1 run by the Raiders but the Louisville deficit at 10 at 25-15. The Cardinals showed signs of life with three straight but were outscored 5-2 down the stretch for the 30-19 loss.
"You always have to push because anything could happen at any time, you can't ever say you have the game in your hands," said freshman Lecia Brown.
In fact, in the very next game after the break, U of L held the Raiders to just 12 points. The Cardinals ran out to a 13-5 lead and added a 10-0 run near the end of the second game. Cardinal hitting heated up to .536 with MTU hitting just .000. Marsh led with four kills in that game.
The fourth game was a game of surges until MTU went on an 8-1 trea only to have U of L come back to within one at 22-21. A kill by Adams took the Raiders to game point and kill by Ashley Asberry took the match to the deciding fifth game.
U of L was up 9-3 in the final game but let MT go on a 9-2 run and tie at 12. U of L got to match point on an ace by Samantha Dabbs but three straight kills by Ashley Adams tipped the game to the Blue Raiders. It is the first time U of L has gone out in the first round since 2000 when the Cardinals fell to Michigan.
