University of Louisville
Arizona
Volleyball Falls 3-2 to No. 24 Arizona
September 04, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2010
Sophomore outside hitter Lola Arslanbekova's career high 26 kills were not enough as the University of Louisville fell 3-2 to No. 24-ranked Arizona in a hard-fought five set match in the second match of the Arizona Wildcat Classic late Friday night in Tucson, Ariz.
Arizona improves to 4-1 with the 25-22, 21-25, 25-16, 23-25, 17-15 win with U of L falling to 3-2. U of L hit .252 to UA's .260 but outblocked the Wildcats 12-8 but the Cardinals were aced 10 times. Gwen Rucker had five blocks, four of them solo. Anastasia Artemeva added 13 kills and four blocks. Whitney Dosty had a match-high 28 kills
In the first set, U of L held a two point lead at 11-9 on a pair of Arizona miscues but the Wildcats came back to take an 18-14 lead on a pair of kills by Courtney Karst. The two teams traded point and the Cardinals finally tied at 21. UA had a little 3-1 run to take the set 25-22. U of L outhit the Wildcats .273 to .167 but were plagued by five service errors and were aced three times.
Karst served for the first seven points for Arizona but the Cardinals tried to regroup after a timeout and pulled to within but UA built the lead to 13-6. Four straight blocks by Gwen Rucker followed by Lola Arslanbekova bulling one through the block brought the Cardinals back two within two at 13-11 and forced a UA timeout. The Cards held the lead, going up 23-21 and an Arslanbekova kill took U of L to game point . A tip by Emily Juhl was the set winner 25-2 to tie the match at one set apiece going into the break. The Cardinals hit .364 in the set and were powered by Arslanbekova's eight kills.
In the third set, the Cards managed to tie at 11 but were outscored 13-4 late in the game before falling 25-16. U of L hitting chilled to .000 while Arizona hit .333. Both teams had three blocks. Whitney Dosty had six kills to lead the Wildcats.
In the fourth set, U of L hit .323 led by Amanda Simmons five kills and four blocks. The Cardinals trailed 21-19 and came back to win 25-23. Louisville forced UA into a deciding fifth set. There, the Cardinals looked like the ranked team as they stormed out to a 7-3 lead and ultimately 11-7. From there, the Wildcats strung together four points to go up 15-14 and hung on to win set five 17-15.
The Cardinals play Butler for the final match of the tournament at 11 a.m. MST.
