By Kelli Gerding– 

Coming off of a huge win against Syracuse on Friday, the Cardinals hosted the Virginia Cavaliers this Sunday at the KFC YUM! Center only to fall just short from a win. Virginia won the first, third, and fifth set to take the 3-2 victory.

The first set score was 27-25 with Virginia in the lead. After multiple points being score back and forth, the teams remained at a tie score of 22-22. Roxanne McVey served to eventually take the lead 24-23 for set point. But Virginia finished and took the first set victory.

Overall, the match was back and forth and for the most part each set was close. After the battle in the first set Louisville won the second 25-13. The third set was 25-15 Virginia, fourth set was 25-21 Louisville, and the fifth set was 15-12 Virginia.

“We just came in with a lot of energy. We were looking back at when we played them the first time and how we let a lot of things slip away so we knew we needed to come out stronger and more confident. We came out just relying on each other, knowing we will take care of our jobs to help contribute as a team,” said sophomore outside hitter Janelle Jenkins.

“Friday’s win against Syracuse gave us energy for today’s game. We know that we are capable of starting a winning trend and we should have rolled over Virginia. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game, but we were prepared for it. We wanted this revenge. It was in our hands and we just let it slip away,” Jenkins added.

“Throughout the course of the match, our middles were very dominant. We couldn’t maintain it because of the pass. That is where we have to get better; it has been our Achilles heel this entire season. Our blocking and our defense is good, our serves were good. The most important thing you can do is control that first contact and we were just struggling. A lot of that is mental and it’s going back, getting the reps, and getting over that hump. Virginia’s a good team; they don’t make a lot of mistakes. I give them a lot of credit. For us, we’re in all these matches, we’re just a couple of points away and it’s frustrating because it’s all within our ability to make it happen. And it’s frustrating but it’s also good because we can go back and make those improvements,” head coach Anne Kordes stated after the match.

Overall, Louisville had 67 kills compared to Virginia’s 66. The Cardinals fell just short of team attacks, having 173 compared to the Cavalier’s 175. Louisville’s team blocks outweighed Virginia’s, as the Cards had 11 while Virginia only had a total of six team blocks.

The Cardinals will be on the road for their next match, taking on Miami on Friday and Notre Dame on Sunday.

Photo by Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal