No. 21 Volleyball Falls to Santa Clara

Friday, September 2

LOUISVILLE, KY

7:30 PM

University of Louisville

3-1

SANTA CLARA

4-0

SANTA CLARA

Louisville

September 02, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Cards fall 3-1; Face Stony Brook at 10 a.m. as Active Ankle Challenge Action Continues.

By: Garrett Nugent

Louisville, Ky. – University of Louisville freshman Melanie McHenry's match-high 16 kills were not enough as the No. 21-ranked Cardinals fell 3-1 to Santa Clara University on the first night of the Active Ankle Volleyball Challenge Friday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

UofL (3-1) was plagued with miscues with 28 attack errors and seven service errors while only hitting .153 for the match. Louisville would fall 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 25-22 to the Broncos (4-0) who hit .232 for the match. Louisville libero Molly Sauer had a match-high 21 digs. Jasmine Bennett hit .476 with 11 kills on 21 swings. SCU was led by Jensen Cunningham's 12 kills and Kirsten Mead's 42 assists.

"We are disappointed to miss the opportunity to get a quality win over a really good team. We just couldn't put runs together," said Anne Kordes, UofL's head coach, "Molly Sauer did a great job defensively, but we couldn't convert. This quick style of offense made them difficult to block. It was the first time in the KFC Yum! Center for the majority of the team so we will regroup and get after it tomorrow."

In the first set, the Broncos carried an early 6-5 lead in the set before Coline Coessens blocked an attack from Santa Clara that sparked a 4-0 run that gave Louisville a 9-6 lead. Santa Clara would counter with 7-2 run of their own and grab a 13-11 lead. Louisville would burn two quick timeouts when SCU took a 16-14 lead, followed by a 19-14 lead. Louisville regained some momentum and went on a 6-1 run and would tie the set at 20 all before Santa Clara would go 5-3 and take the set 25-23. Both teams struggled in their attacking game with Santa Clara hitting .125 and Louisville hitting .093.

In the second set, Louisville found their attacking game, hitting .333. Louisville started the match with an 8-3 run. Santa Clara would make things a little more interesting taking the next three points to tighten things up at 8-6. Louisville used small runs as Louisville would take the lead to 17-13, forcing Santa Clara to call a timeout to regroup, which worked, as the Broncos would go on a 4-2 run and cut the Cardinals lead to 19-17. Louisville would counter with a 5-2 run and lead 24-19 before an error by the Broncos would give the set to Louisville and even the match at 1-1.

Things took a step backwards for the Cards in the third set as Santa Clara took 11 of the first 15 points in the set.. The Cards eventually cut the lead to 14-9 but Santa Clara countered with a 4-0 run to bring their lead to 18-9 and force Louisville to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, a kill by Janelle Jenkins and two aces by Melanie McHenry would cut the lead to 18-12 and Santa Clara would burn a quick timeout. A 4-1 Bronco run gave them a 22-13 lead, but three kills by Jasmine Bennett helped the Cardinals to a 7-2 run to cut the lead to 24-20 Bronco lead. Santa Clara called a timeout, and an attack error by the Cardinals gave Santa Clara set point and a 2-1 lead.

Neither team could take a commanding lead in the fourth, but the Cardinals were able to take a small lead at 12-11. Santa Clara would counter with a 3-0 run to take a 14-12 lead. The Cardinals would then tie it at 14 all before a Santa Clara run gave them a 22-18 lead. A Louisville kill and an attack error on Santa Clara cut their lead to 22-20 and forced Santa Clara to call a timeout. The Broncos responded out of the timeout with back-to-back kills and held match point at 24-20. Louisville would counter with back-to-back kills by Bennett and McHenry, but were unable to fend off match point, and fell 25-22 to Santa Clara.

The Cardinals will return to action at the Active Ankle Challenge tomorrow morning when they face Stony Brook at 10 a.m. and will wrap up the tournament when they face Auburn at 7:30 p.m.