By Charlie Leffler
This past weekend the Cardinal volleyball team launched into action at the Illinois State/Barker GMC Classic in Normal Illinois. In the weekend competition the Cards swatted the competition, defeating Illinois State, UW Milwaukee, and UM-Kansas City to win the championship.
On Friday the cards were matched up against Illinois State coming away with a win 30-25, 30-28, 23-30.
On Saturday morning the volleyball team returned to action against UW Milwaukee. Junior Stacey Mercer had eight kills and eight blocks to lead the Cards to a 3-0 sweep, 30-15, 30-24, 30-27. Louisville, as a team hit .235 with nine service aces and nine team blocks. UW-Milwaukee severely hurt itself by giving up 41 points on its own service, hitting and blocking errors while hitting .085. “We stayed with our game plan and served much better than we did yesterday,” said head coach Leonid Yelin, “and we came out on top.”
Sonja Percan had five kills and two aces as the Cardinals were able to score in bunches running off the final nine straight points to win the first game. U of L hit .367 with just one hitting error in 30 attacks. Emily Roberson had two of the offences five aces.
Later in the afternoon on Saturday the Cardinals faced off against UM-Kansas City for the championship of the Classic. Sarah Drury had five aces to lead the University of Louisville to a three-game sweep of the Kangaroos, 30-23, 30-12, 30-21. UMKC is coached by former U of L assistant Steve Dallman.
The Cards used height to their advantage to outblock the UNKC 11-8. Overall U of L hit .284 to the KangaroosÕ .031.
Lesley Drury and 23 kills and six blocks.
“UMKC played with a lot of emotion in the first game,” Yelin said. “We were able to stay calm and withstand their run.”
The Cards are now 3-0 on the season.
