University of Louisville
Syracuse (BIG EAST Quarterfinal)
Top-seeded Volleyball Sweeps Syracuse in BIG EAST Opener
November 16, 2007 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 16, 2007
Svetlana Dukule had 16 kills, hitting .500 with four blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 30-23, 30-24, 30-20 sweep of No. 8-seeded Syracuse in the quarterfinal match of the BIG EAST Championship in Al McGuire Arena Friday afternoon in Milwaukee.
U of L improves to 21-5 with the sweep and will advance to the semi-final match against Notre Dame, which beat Cincinnati 3-1 in the first match of the day. Syracuse ends its season at 21-13.
"It sounds like a cliché but you really have to take it one game and one match at a time," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. It is good to get the first match in the facility under our belt. It took us two games to get our serve receive under control and hopefully that will hold over to the match tomorrow."
U of L had two other players joining Dukule in double digit kills with Jana Matiasovska adding 11 and Justine Landi recording 10. Lecia Brown, the nation's leader in blocking, led all blockers with a match-high five. Linda Mango had a match-high 16 digs. Syracuse did not help its own cause with 10 service errors. The Orange was led by Brittany Kern's 10 kills and Cheryl Cobbina, who had 10 kills, and two blocks. The Orange hit .259 to U of L's .427.
]In the first game, U of L hit .359 to SU's .167 led by Svetlana Dukule's five kills. U of L blew out to a 9-4 lead and forced the Orange to play catch up the entire first frame. The Orange pulled to within two at 13-11 but the Cardinals pulled back ahead keeping the margin at seven for the majority of the game.
Syracuse took the lead in the second game at 6-5 but the Cardinals scrambled back to retake the lead at 17-16. The Cardinals did not trail again with the 30-24 win. Despite improved Orange hitting of .455, U of L's .552 hitting was enough to keep SU from regaining the lead. Svetlana Dukule and Jana Matiasovska each had five kills. Lecia Brown had three blocks in the set.
In the third game, U of L blew out to 10-3 lead and Syracuse's hitting went cold at .179. The Orange were able to cut the margin to four at 18-14 and force a Cardinal timeout but the Cardinals scored the next 11 of the games 14 points.
The semi-final match against Notre Dame is a rematch of 2006's BIG EAST championship match of a year ago. The Irish won the first two games before the Cardinals came back to win 3-2 to take the crown. U of L would like to avenge last weekend's loss to NDU which broke up the Cardinals' sweep of the entire conference.
