Louisville Volleyball Swept by Ohio State

Bing Sun

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Outside hitter Stacey Gordon had 31 kills to
lead host Ohio State to a three-game sweep of the University of
Louisville volleyball team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in
St. John Arena Saturday night.

"Their outside hitter Stacey Gordon was the best hitter we have
seen all year and her setter mixed it up for her really well," said
senior libero Sarah Drury. "Our block did fine but we just couldn't
contain her. "

U of L ended its season at 28-6 with the 30-26, 30-28, 30-24
loss. Ohio State advances to the Sweet Sixteen and posts a 21-10
record.

"It was a good match tonight," said U of L head coach Leonid
Yelin. "A couple of things didn't work out for us. But we were beaten by
a better team tonight. It was a great tournament atmosphere."

U of L hit a toasty .307 and outblocked the Buckeyes 7-6 but
OSU had 62 kills to U of L's 50 and added five aces.

"You know that you are up against a good team when you hit .307
and it isn't enough," said Yelin.

In the first game, the two teams traded points in the early
going before the Buckeyes scored five unanswered points to go up 15-10.
After the Cardinals called time out , they cam back and tied at 19 and
began trading points back and forth again.

"We stayed in the game until about 20 but then we didn't close
it." said Yelin.
OSU had a mini-run of three straight points to go up 26-23 and
Yelin used his other timeout. Gordon scored four of the final five
points in the game to lead the Buckeyes to a 30-26 win. Louisville hit
.250 to Ohio State's .390. U of L was edged in blocking 3-1.

In the second game, U of L fell behind 11-6 in the early going
but scraped away at the lead to tie at 18 on a Benny Flynn service ace.
Yelin called timeout when OSU scored three straight to go up 22-19.
Once again, U of L answered by tying at 25 on a Lena Ustymenko kill and
solo block.

"We could push for two or three points but just couldn't push
through to build a big enough lead," said Sun.

Ohio State got to game point on a kill by Gordon but U of L
scored again to pull within one at 29-28. Gordon had the final kill as
OSU won 30-28. Although U of L had three aces and improved its hitting
to .324 in the second set, it wasn't enough to get past the Buckeyes.
Gordon had 11 kills to lead OSU. Sun had nine for U of L.

In the third game, U of L maintained a lead until 12-11 on a
Shelly Draeg4er kill. The teams traded points until OSU went on a
three-point run to go up 23-20 and forcing a U of L timeout. U of L
came back and cut the defisit to one at 24-23 on a kills by Bing Sun.
However, the Buckeyes went 5-1 down the stretch to clinch the match.
Sun ended the match with 19 kills and two blocks. Ustymenko had
eight with Flynn and Mercer each