Volleyball Falls in Five to Minnesota

Friday, September 4

KFC YUM! CENTER

7:00 PM

University of Louisville

2-2

MINNESOTA

1-2

Minnesota

Louisville

Janelle Jenkins

September 04, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Wisconsin Next in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

By: Nancy Worley

Santana Daly had a career-high 39 kills to lead Minnesota to a 3-2 win over Louisville in the Cardinals' home opener in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge Friday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

UofL evens its record at two with the 23-25, 25-14, 25-20, 26-28, 15-13 loss to the Gophers, who improve to 1-2. Cardinal Erin Fairs had 22 kills and a block with Maya McClendon adding a double-double with 14 kills and 16 digs. Katie George had 58 assists and 13 digs.

"We set goals as a benchmark for our pin hitters and even against a big block we need to hold them to that," said Anne Kordes, UofL head coach. "We have to defend and score against a physical team. WE were ahead four to win in the fifth and we let them back in. We need to put together a competitive effort in tight situations."

The Cardinals withstood two Gopher runs before going on an 8-1 run themselves to go up 23-21. Erin Fairs crushed a ball from the left for set point and then Tess Clark scored the winning point for the 25-23 win in the first set. The Cards had two blocks, two aces and hit .278. Maya McClendon and Tess Clark each had four kills apiece for UofL.

The Gophers ran out to a 13-7 early in the second set and the Cards could not dig themselves out of the hole, with .000 hitting. They got as close as three at 13-10 but were outscored 12-4 down the stretch. The Gophers hit .333 in the set.

In the third set, UofL had a four point lead early on at 7-3 on three straight Gopher miscues. But Minnesota scrambled back to retake the lead at at 9-8 on three straight from Santana. UofL managed to tie at 18 on a kill by Tess Clark, but the Cards were outscored 7-2 doourwn the stretch for the 25-20 loss.

The fourth set saw the teams tie 13 times as they traded punches. Minnesota had set and match point at 24-22 after two Santana kills. Cardinal transfer Erin Fairs had four straight kills to give the Cards set point at 27-26. Santana missed to force a fifth set.

In the fifth set, Minnesota had to burn both its timeouts as the Cards blew out to a four point lead at 9-5. After regrouping the Gophers tied at 10 and then pushed to a 15-13 win for the match.

Wisconsin beat North Carolina 3-1 in the first match of the evening. Tomorrow UNC takes on Minnesota at 4:30 Saturday and the Cardinals face Wisconsin at 7 p.m. back at the KFC Yum! Center.