University of Louisville
KENTUCKY
Volleyball Upsets No. 16 Kentucky 3-2
September 16, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2009
Freshman Lola Arslanbekova had 21 kills and a block to lead the University of Louisville to a 3-2 upset win over No. 16 Kentucky before a raucous and record crowd at Cardinal Arena in college volleyball action Wednesday night.
U of L (7-3), handed their intrastate rival Kentucky its first loss of the season, dropping the Cats to 10-1 with the 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 22-25, 16-14 win. U of L hit .324 for the game and outblocked the Cats 21 to six. Sophomore Anastasia Artemeva had 12 kills and a season-high five solo blocks with senior Justine Landi tallying 18 kill and seven blocks. U of L senior setter Kimi Hohl had a season-high 50 assists and 12 digs. UK was led by Sarah Mendoza's 26 kills.
"This night with the crowd going crazy, going five sets with the place so hot and loud was exactly why we are so glad that we play each other again," said Leonid Yelin, who is now 15-1 against UK. "It was a great win and a satisfying win as we learned to believe in ourselves."
Down 8-4 in the first set, U of L used a 10-2 run to win 25-19. U of L hit .310 to UK's .176 with the Cards outblocking their opponents 4-2. In the second set, UK took a 19-13 lead and then staved off a hard-charging Cardinal team who tied at 22. A U of L service error and two kills by UK's Lauren Rapp tipped the set to the Cats 25-23.
With the scored tied at 13, U of L went on a 12 -5 win in the third set for the 25-18 win. Arslanbekova had seven kills and U of L had five blocks in the set. The third set got gritty with neither team hitting well as U of L posted a .091 hitting percentage with UK only marginally better at .184. UK used a 5-0 run to get back into the lead at 17-16. U of L was able to scramble back to tie at 22 but a kill by Blair Hiler and a block by Becky Pavan and Rapp gave the set to the Cats 25-22 and forced a fifth game. In the fifth game U of L hit .421 although Kentucky stayed close and tied at 14. U of L got to set and match point on a error by Blaire Hiler and an ace by Lecia Brown.
"We had not heard of Kentucky but we heard we had to win this match," said Arslanbekova. "We wanted to win it for coach and I knew we would."
