By Charlie Leffler
The Cardinal volleyball team was cooking Friday night when it took on Charlotte in a C-USA matchup, but no one could accuse Louisville of home cooking. In only their third home match since August, the Cards made quick work of the 49ers before nearly 1000 fans and a television audience.
Louisville won it’s fifth straight and 10 of it’s last 11 games by downing UNC 3-0, 30-20, 30-13, 30-17.
The Cardinals were once again led by the solid play of Bing Sun who is turning into a dynamic all-around player. However, it appears that 15-year-old academic phenom Lena Ustymenko is quickly becoming a volleyball phenom as well. Throughout the match Ustymenko’s serves were fast and hard while her play was steady and composed.
“I think this whole team has been really good to accept me,” said Ustymenko, “it’s been a good relationship.”
Louisville head coach Leonid Yelin was glad about the win but he was more happy about the way that his team played. “The kids played well, but more important they had fun,” he said.
In the first game, Louisville had pulled out to an 11-5 lead over Charlotte on a fierce kill by Bing Sun, but a quick pair of 49er points narrowed the lead to 11-7. But then a kill by the Cards’ Stacey Mercer started a run of three straight points forcing Charlotte to call a timeout. The break didn’t stop the bleeding as U of L then outscored UNC 7-4 to open a 21-11 margin which was too large for the 49ers to overcome. In the game, Louisville finished with a .314 attack average compared to Charlotte’s .028. Benny Flynn and Sun led the Cards with four kills each.
In game two U of L was on fire and quickly jumped out to a 4-1 lead which stretched to 11-5, then 20-8 forcing Charlotte to once again call a timeout. Coming out of the break, Ustymenko slammed a vicious kill from midcourt and the Cards finished out the game by outscoring 10-5 down the stretch to win 30-13. More amazing than Louisville’s intense play was after the dust settled it turned out that every one of Charlotte’s 13-points in the game had come off of a Louisville service error or ball hit out of bounds. UNC scored no points from their own play. The Cards finished the game with a .519 attack percentage while Charlote hit a -.034.
Coming out in the third game UNC showed a little more patience and alertness while pulling out to a 2-0 lead over the Cards, but it would be the only lead they held all night. Louisville quickly climbed on the shoulders of Sun for kill after kill pulling out to a 16-10 lead. Charlotte momentarily threatened as they climbed back to within 16-12, but with Louisville’s Anastaisia Zaitseva and Flynn serving, U of L reeled off eight out the next 10-points to pull ahead 24-14 once again forcing a UNC timeout. A service error by Flynn gave the next point to the 49ers but then a slam dunk shot by Louisville’s Jessica Craven cracked the gates. When Charlotte’s Holly Kreyling attempted a kill on the next play she hit into a solid wall formed by U of L’s Adriana Morris, Zaitseva and Sun. The Cardinal point took the wind out of the 49ers and Louisville outscored UNC 4-2 to seal the 30-17 win. In the game U of L had a .367 attack percentage while Charlotte hit an even .000.
While the Cards looked smooth and efficient in the win, Yelin says there is always room for improvement. “There’s a lot of things we can do better,” he said. “It’s a lot of little things because this time of the year you’re not looking to do any changes. It’s more just polishing things.”
For the match Louisville had 49-kills and were led by Sun’s 14. Flynn had nine, Mercer eight and Ustymenko and Zaitseva each tallied seven apiece. Jennifer Craven finished the match with 40 set assists and four digs.
Louisville moves to 15-3, 4-0 and will face East Carolina at 7:30 on Saturday night.
