By Benjamin Lampkin
The Arizona Wildcats, who are perennial Final Four Contenders, headed into Saturday night’s matchup with Louisville 2-0 in the Louisville Labor Day Invitational. However, only the Cardinals would end the evening undefeated, as they swept Arizona 30-19, 30-27, and 30-28 to upset the No. 6-ranked Wildcats before a crowd of 904 in Cardinal Arena.
“Team, team, team effort, that is what it was. I can’t even begin top individually mention every person and what they did in the effort that made this win possible,” said head coach Leonid Yelin.
After struggling in their overtime victory over Texas-Arlington earlier in the day, the Cards quickly overcame an early deficit to take a 16-9 lead in the first game. Arizona never got closer than five points, and U of L dominated in all aspects, hitting .433 with 17 kills and collecting four service aces in the 30-19 drubbing.
“A win in the first game against a gifted opponent can sometimes be attributed to adrenaline,” said Yelin. “So I was cautiously optimistic at best.”The second game was a wake-up call to the Cards that Arizona would not take a loss so lightly. The heavy hitters from Tuscon, senior Shannon Torregrosa and freshman Kim Glass, each had five kills and put pressure on U of L’s back row. However, Bing Sun provided six kills, along with Sonja Percan’s five, and a .375 percentage and six service aces allowed the Cards to pull out the 30-27 win. Everyone helped. The upperclassmen were leading the way and the underclassmen were following in their footsteps,” said Yelin.
The Cards were able to stay a few steps ahead of ‘Zona at every turn in the third game, starting with an ace by Anastasia Zaitseva. A pinpoint shot by Sarah Drury into the corner put U of L up 7-3, and Arizona was forced to call a timeout with the scoreboard reading 9-4 Louisville.
Several Cardinal errors allowed the Cats to creep within two points, and a long, furious rally was won by the Cats. Later, a great save at the back line by Arizona was outdone by a fantastic diving save by Drury, and U of L took the point to go up 20-15.
The big guns from Zona continued to pound the ball into U of L defenders. Torregrossa and Glass each had six kills in the third game, while Lisa Rutledge had five of her own. The three also combined for eight attack errors.
Arizona reeled off three consecutive points to inch ever closer, but the Cards managed to stay in front throughout. A kill by Benny Flynn put the Cards up 29-26, and the Cats pulled to within one before a block ended the game at 30-28 and gave U of L the sweep.
The tremendous home crowd, estimated at 904, was raucous from the opening serve to the final point.
“It was almost as if we had seven players on the court because our fans were such a part of this win,” said Yelin.
Sonja Percan finished with 18 kills on 34 attacks, while Bing Sun contributed 10 kills and seven digs. New libero Sarah Drury had 12 digs, while freshman setter Jennifer Craven had an excellent match, finishing with 39 assists. Junior Anastasia Zaitseva had a team-high five blocks, and senior Stacey Mercer finished with seven kills on 10 attacks.
Arizona’s Lisa Rutledge had 11 kills, while Laura Gardner had 36 assists as the two seniors were named to the All-Tournament team.
On Louisville’s side, Benny Flynn and Jennifer Craven were named to the All-Tournament team, with Sonja Percan earning Tournament MVP honors.
On Friday night, the Cardinals swept American University 30-23, 30-28, 30-24 for their first win of the season. Behind 13 kills and 10 digs from Bing Sun, who is returning from a knee injury which forced her to sit out the 2001 season, the Cards were able to get the opening match under control from the start.
The Cards hit .314 in the first game with 18 kills, while American hit .161 and had 11 kills. A close second game prompted Yelin to use both of his timeouts to pull his team together, and the teams were tied at 28 before U of L pulled out the final two points for the 30-28 win.
For the match, Sonja Percan had 11 kills, while Benny Flynn chipped in nine and Stacey Mercer added seven. Jennifer Craven had 39 assists in her Louisville debut.
“It is always good to get past those first match jitters,” said Leonid Yelin.
“We had a new setter and new rules with the libero position being added and it went pretty smoothly.”
Several new faces graced the court for the Cards this weekend, including starting setter Jennifer Craven, a freshman from Assumption High School, freshman Jennifer Hoffman from Chicago, University of Kentucky transfer Candace Cogan, and Lena Ustymenko, a 15-year-old from Kiev, Ukraine.
