Volleyball Outlasts Lipscomb

Friday, September 16

LOUISVILLE, KY

7:00 PM

University of Louisville

5-5

LIPSCOMB

7-3

LIPSCOMB

Louisville

September 16, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

Cards set school record for blocks with 23

By: Nancy Worley

The University of Louisville volleyball team used a school record 23 block, to defeat Lipscomb University at Cardinal Arena on Friday night in five sets 27-25, 26-24, 23-25, 18-25, 15-12.

Louisville (5-5) was led by Melanie McHenry, Tess Clark, and Maggie Dejong each with 10 kills. Janelle Jenkins led the Cardinals in blocks with 11, while Clark and Jasmine Bennett added 10. Lipscomb's Carlyle Nusbaum led the match in kills with 32. The Bison are now 7-3.

"Great win after bouncing back from a tough loss last night," UofL head coach Anne Kordes said after the win. "Lipscomb has had a great pre-conference so far and are such a tough team … a great team. It was a little bit of a let down to go up 2-0 and then let them into a fifth set. I couldn't be more proud. We had Janelle Jenkins back, we had Jasmine Bennett back and Maggie DeJong, who has never played outside and I am so proud of our blocking. They kept us in the match. Lipscomb outhit us, out-dug us, but we were able to control the match from a blocking standpoint and that was the difference."

The first set of the match featured three runs of three or more points by each team. The first run of the set came from the Bisons as three straight kills gave them an early 3-0 lead, but Louisville countered with five points that coupled a kill from Tess Clark, three Bison errors, and a block from Clark to give the Cards a 5-3 lead. After taking a 7-6 lead, Lipscomb would go on their second run of the game to take a 10-7 lead. Louisville would fight back and back-to-back Clark blocks brought the score to a 13-12 Bison lead. Louisville would then go on a 7-4 run to tie the game at 19 all. The Cards then held out for the 27-25 win.

The second set was close again as Lipscomb held a slender 7-6 lead until Louisville went on a 5-0 run to take an 11-7 lead. The Cardinals grew their lead to 20-14 thanks to good blocking up top by Tess Clark, Jasmine Bennett, and Melanie McHenry, but Lipscomb refused to give up and went on a 10-1 run and actually had set point at 24-21. A service error by Lipscomb gave life back to Louisville, who would get huge blocks by Bennett and Jenkins, to take the last five points and win the set 26-24.

Despinte having a 2-0 set lead coming out of the half, Louisville fell behind early at 6-4 before a kill by Jenkins brought the score within a point. The Cardinals would trade points and have a 4-0 run to take a 10-9 lead, and then a 17-13 lead before Lipscomb went on a 7-2 run to take a 20-19 lead. The teams traded points before the Bison went on to win 25-23.

Jenkins got things started in the fourth set with a kill and a block, coupled with an error by Lipscomb, to take an early 3-0 lead. Lipscomb would cut the score to 8-6 before putting together a 3-0 run to take the lead. Lipscomb would maintain the lead for the rest of the set to pull off a 25-18 win and tie the match at 2-2.

Louisville registered three blocks early in the final set to take a 4-1 lead early. Louisville and Lipscomb traded points to bring the score to 8-6 before Lipscomb would commit two errors and force the Bison to call a timeout with Louisville leading 10-6. Lipscomb had a kill out of the timeout, but back-to-back kills by Clark widened the Cardinal lead to 12-7 and forced Lipscomb to burn their last timeout. But UofL's Maggie DeJong had kill for the Cardinals for the fifth set win of 15-12, and take the match 3-2.

Louisville opens ACC play when they travel to Notre Dame on Friday and Florida State on Sunday.