TicketsVolleyball Stuns No. 17 Louisville
Contact: Shawn Sell
10/10/2003
Senior Laura Lauder improved her nation's-best assists per game average with 51 assists Friday night vs. Louisville. |
CINCINNATI, Ohio---The dynamic duo of junior Julie DuPont and sophomore Maria Pongonis led the University of Cincinnati volleyball team to one of its biggest wins ever, a three-game sweep of No. 17 Louisville on Friday night in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center.
The win was the Bearcats? third ever over a ranked team and marked the highest-ever ranked team defeated by a Cincinnati squad. With the 30-22, 30-26, 31-29 win, the Bearcats improve to 17-2 on the season and are 3-0 in Conference USA. Louisville falls to 9-4, with a 2-1 league slate.
DuPont and Pongonis were both pivotal in leading Cincinnati to victory, as they totaled 23 and 19 kills, respectively. DuPont added 10 digs, while hitting .327 for the match. Pongonis added a match-best 13 digs, hitting at a .412 clip. Senior setter Laura Lauder came up big once again, carding 51 assists to lead the Bearcat attack to a .350 team hitting percentage. With the performance, Lauder raises her nation?s-best assists per game average to 15.08.
Lena Ustymenko led the visitors with 15 kills, while Sonja Percan tacked on 12, adding 12 digs for a double-double. Louisville hit .267 for the match and got 35 assists from Jennifer Craven.
?Our players just prepared themselves so well and followed the scouting reports to a T,? said an elated Reed Sunahara following the match. ?Everyone stepped up and this was a total team effort. Our execution was really good tonight and we were able to side out well which was key for us.?
The opening game was tight early on, featuring seven ties and four lead changes, before either team reached 15 points. After an Ustymenko kill tied the match at 14, the Bearcats took control with eight consecutive points to pull away from the Cardinals. Balance was the key for the home team as Rachel Torblaa (two kills), Pongonis (two kills), Myanna Hellsten (kill, service ace) and Leslie Newell (kill) all came up large for Cincinnati.
The Cardinals clawed back, though, running off four straight points to get within four. But Louisville could get no closer than three down the stretch as the Bearcats? captains DuPont and Lauder took over to close out the win. DuPont started the run with at trio of kills, before Lauder broke Louisville?s collective backs with back-to-back service aces and a kill of her own to close out the 30-22 win.
Both teams lit up the stat sheet in game one as the Bearcats hit a sizzling .409 to .263 for U of L. DuPont led all players with seven kills, while Pongonis had six on .714 hitting. Ustymenko was key for the Cardinals with six kills on .400 hitting.
The second frame was all Cincinnati as they took an early 4-1 lead and never looked back. Cincinnati opened its advantage to as much as eight on six different occasions, but had to withstand a late Louisville charge to pull out the 30-26 triumph.
UC led by seven at 25-18 after DuPont and Torblaa blocked Bing Sun and Torblaa aced the Cardinals. It was then that Louisville mounted a charge, scoring five consecutive points to get within 25-23. After the teams traded points, Newell put down a kill and the Bearcats added another on a Louisville error. After Jennifer Hoffman scored a Cardinal kill, Pongonis set up game point with a kill of her own. Louisville fought off the first game point, but Torblaa and Newell?s block of Percan sent the home team into the break with a two-game lead.
The third and final game proved to be an epic battle between two outstanding teams that had the crowd of 457 in an uproar throughout. Neither team was able to build much of a lead in a game that featured 16 ties and five lead changes. The Bearcats led early by a 9-5 count, but Louisville came back to knot the score at 10 and start the run of ties and lead changes.
Louisville appeared to have the momentum when they took a 23-20 lead, before Pongonis caught fire for UC. The sophomore outside hitter erupted for four kills in a six-point span, but the home team still trailed by a 25-24 score. Lauder promptly tied the game with a kill, before Louisville retook the lead. Back-to-back kills by DuPont forced a Cardinal timeout and had Fifth Third Arena roaring with Cincinnati ahead 27-26.
After the timeout, Percan tied the game for Louisville, before DuPont stuffed Sun for a 28-27 Bearcat lead. Ustymenko then single handedly kept Louisville in the game with a pair of kills. Tied at 29, Pongonis set up UC?s second match point with her 19th kill and the freshman Hellsten closed out the nail biter with her career-high third service ace of the match.
The Bearcats continued their hot swinging in game three, ripping the Cardinals for a .340 clip. DuPont was stellar with 10 kills in the deciding game, while Pongonis added eight of her own. Louisville hit a solid .326 in the third frame, getting seven kills from Ustymenko.
Cincinnati now gets a seven-day breather before a weekend trip south for a pair of C-USA tilts. The Bearcats begin the swing at Charlotte on Friday (Oct. 17), before heading to East Carolina the next night.