University of Louisville
CINCINNATI
Volleyball Sweeps Long-time Rival Cincinnati
October 14, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 14, 2011
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Feeding off of an energetic crowd, the University of Louisville volleyball team overcame a sluggish start to sweep BIG EAST rival Cincinnati 26-24, 25-19, 25-11 on Friday night in Cardinal Arena.
"Huge win for us. Cincinnati is a great program, a great rival and they have a great coach in Reed Sunahara. We had great defense, good blocking and ran a well-balanced attack. You know you throw the records out when it is a rivalry game like this and I was proud that we stayed intense and even got better as the match went on."
The Cardinals stayed unbeaten in league play, moving their record to 7-0 and 15-4 overall. Cincinnati drops to 5-2 and 13-8 overall. U of L outhit the Bearcats .287 to .077 and outblocked them 11.5-6. The Cards notched five aces and outdug UC 40-34. U of L was led by Lola Arslanbekova's match-high 16 kills.
The first set was a typical Louisville versus Cincinnati slugfest between the two teams with the longest rivalry in the BIG EAST. The Cardinals were able to jump out to a slim 4-0 lead but soon had the Bearcats snapping at their heels. UC took its first lead at 17-16 and moved the spread to three, leading 21-18. The Cards tied at 22 and then had set point first at 24-23. UC tied at 24 and then a kill by Lola Arslanbekova and a miss by Megan Turner gave U of L the 26-24 win.
The Cards built a seven point lead at 13-6 in the second set but UC managed to fight back to within two at 19-17 when Missy Harpenau had one of her five kills. But the Bearcats would score just twice more as the Cards rolled to a 25-19 win.
In the third set, U of L managed to hold UC to just 11 points, the school's lowest total since the 25-point system was implemented. The Cards used an 8-0 run down the stretch as the Bearcats stalled at 11, winning 25-11.
