University of Louisville
Pittsburgh
Volleyball Push Panthers into Pit with 3-0 Win
November 07, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 7, 2008
Jana Matiasovska had 12 kills, an ace and two blocks to lead the University of Louisville to a 25-13, 25-16, 25-23 sweep of Pittsburgh Friday night in Pitt's Fitzgerald Fieldhouse.
The Cardinals move to 13-10 and 9-3 in the BIG EAST while Pitt falls to 15-11 and 7-4 in the league. U of L hit a torrid .349 and had three aces and 11 blocks compared to Pitt's .127 hitting, no aces and four blocks. Matiasovska was joined by Justine Landi who had 11 kills, 20 assists and eight digs for the Cardinals. Junior blocker Lecia Brown had six kills and a five blocks with Tatyana Kolesnikova adding six blocks to the total. Pitt was led by Kelly Campbell's match-high 15 kills and seven digs.
U of L was buoyed by the attendance of hundreds of Cardinal fans who were in town to see Saturday's football matchup between Pitt and U of L.
"It was almost like a home match," said Leonid Yelin. "This was a pivotal match for us as we are coming down the home stretch of our conference schedule. And of course any road win the BIG EAST is great."
U of L led early in the first set when Cardinal senior Kristie Wetterer served four straight points to take U of L to 6-1. The Cards continued to build their lead when Matiasovska got a hot serving hand with six straight to take the lead to 23-13. A kill by Justine Landi took U of L to set point 24-13 and then an error by Pitt gave the Cardinals the win.
Pitt stayed close early in the second set but the Cardinals hit a scorching .478 which helped break the 9-9 tie and break open the lead to 21-13. Three Panther errors late in the set took U of L to set point at 24-15. Pitt scored on a Kelly Campbell kill but a service error by Stephanie Ross ended the comeback 25-16.
After the break, Pitt seemed to have a grip on the momentum as they went up 14-11 in the first half of the set. The Cardinals battled back to tie at 19 on a kill by Lecia Brown. Uf oL did not retake the lead until 23-22 on a kill by Tatyana Kolesnikova. Wetterer aced the Panthers to get to match point but Campbell had kill to come within one 24-23. Jana Matiasovska put away the match winner on set from Landi.
The Cardinals now travel to Morgantown to face the Mountaineers on Sunday at 2 p.m.
