University of Louisville
Purdue
Volleyball Falls to Purdue in NCAA Tournament
December 04, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 4, 2010
West Lafayette, Ind. - Gwen Rucker's career-high 13 kills and four blocks and Caitlin Welch's career-high four aces were not enough as the University of Louisville volleyball team bowed out of the NCAA Second Round with a 3-1 loss to host Purdue Saturday night in West Lafayette, Ind.
"We got beat by a better team tonight, that is all there is to it," said U of L head coach Leonid Yelin. "But overall, I cannot complain. Purdue did what they had to do and my young team will take away a great lesson from this. I would like to do research on how many teams starting three freshmen advanced this far."
U of L fell 26-24, 25-23, 18-25, 25-15 and finish the season at 23-8. Purdue advances to the Austin, Texas Regional and is now 23-10 going into the Sweet Sixteen, their third time in school history.
"Defensively we did not do as well as we usually do," said Yelin. "With everything on the line and so emotional we tried too hard. We pressed. I would remind them at timeouts that they were ahead and to relax."
Rucker finished the match hitting .522 and teamed up with Emily Juhl and Taylor Brauneis in the fourth set to give the Cardinals back-to-back blocks to open the set. Her 13 kills broke her old career-high of 12 set against Miami (OH) in 2008 and Ohio this season. Purdue was led by Tiffany Fisher's team high 12 kills.
"We had a tough time blocking Fisher," said Gwen Rucker. "She made the biggest difference for them. Purdue just made runs. In volleyball you make runs, that is what you do. They made theirs at key times and we had trouble stopping them. "
Welch ended the season with a match-high 15 digs. She aced the Boilers on back-to-back plays in the second set, breaking her old career-high of three aces set against Marquette on Nov. 12.
Purdue was led by their defense, finishing with 62 digs. Carly Carmer (13), Blair Bashen (11), Jaclyn Hart (10) and Emily Ehlers (10) all finished with double-digit digs for Purdue.
In the first set, U of L took an early lead at 10-8, but the Boilers came back to retake the lead at 12-11 and built it to five at 20-15. After a U of L timeout, U of L fought back to within two at 22-20 as Gwen Rucker and Emily Juhl got the offense rolling. The Cardinals tied the score at 24 on a Juhl kill but fell on a net call 26-24. The Cardinals hit just .119 in the first set but Rucker had five kills and hit .556.
The Cardinals took an early lead at 15-8 on two straight aces by Caitlin Welch. But the Boilermakers had a 9-0 run to go up 18-17. The teams traded points with Emily Juhl tying the score at 23 on a kill. But Purdue had two straight points for the 25-23 win, hitting .342.
In the third set, U of L hit .323 to Purdue's .077 and took the set 25-18. Amanda Simmons had four kills and the Cardinals outblocked the Boilers 5-0. U of L ran out to a 15-7 lead and never looked back.
U of L had a slim lead in the fourth set at 6-5 before Purdue went on a 7-0 run to run its lead to 12-6. The Cardinals battled back but the Boiler defense took a toll on the Cardinals as they were outdug 12-7. Purdue got to match point on a kill by Ariel Turner and then won on a kill by Kristen Arthurs. U of L hit .065 and only recorded 10 kills in the final set.
