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Volleyball Puts Stop to UNLV's Run With 3-1 Win
Sept. 15, 2012
Kaitlynn James led the No. 12-ranked University of Louisville with a career-high 16 kills and seven digs to a 3-1 (23-25, 26-24, 25-6, 25-21) victory over the UNLV Rebels in the Louisville Invitational Volleyball Tournament Saturday morning in the KFC Yum! Center. U of L improves to 10-1 on the season, Hannah Kvitle led the Cardinals with 25 assists and 18 digs in the match. Katie George came in second on the team with 21 key assists. Lola Arslanbekova added 15 kills, 17 digs, and four blocks to the Cards effort. The Cardinals had an overall hitting percentage of .209. Kinsey Caldwell led the Rebels with 37 assists in the match and Daryn Glenn gave a fantastic effort in trying to earn a win for UNLV. Sekola Falemaka led the team with 15 kills and Madeline Westman added six blocks for the Rebels. UNLV, 6-5, had an overall hitting percentage of .102 for the match. The UNLV Rebels took the first set 25-23 after making a run late in the set that the Cards could not respond to. Early in the set the score was 10-10 as the teams went back and forth as neither squad could get out in front. UNLV used a 5-1 run to push the score to 16-13. Louisville was able to battle back and tie things up at 19-19 off of a kill by Carly Sahagian. The Cardinals were then able to capture their first lead at 21-20 since leading 12-11. However, UNLV went on a 4-0 run to get to set point and made sure to close out the Cards. UNLV had three blocks in the first set to that of zero from Louisville. The Cardinals were only able to muster a .109 hitting percentage to that of .149 of the Rebels. Leading Louisville were Hannah Kvitle with seven assists and five digs, Katie George with six assists, and Lola Arslanbekova with five digs. Kinsey Caldwell led UNLV with ten assists and six digs. UNLV took an early lead in the second set using two runs of 3-0. A combined run of 11-3 by the Rebels pushed their advantage to 14-6 and really put the pressure down on Louisville. The Cards were able to regain their composure midway through the set and put together a 6-1 run to narrow the Rebel's lead to 15-12 following three straight kills by Kaitlynn James. The Cardinals pulled within one point two times late in the set at 17-18 and 19-20. The Cards were then able to tie things up at 20-20 and finally take their first lead of the set at 21-20 after a kill by Kaitlynn James. Katie George used a nifty dump to give the Cards set point at 24-23. The Cardinals took the set 26-24 to even the set score tied at 1-1. Katie George led Louisville with seven assists in the second set. Lola Arslanbekova added four kills and six digs. Kaitlynn James helped guide the Cards to win the set with six kills. Kinsey Caldwell again led UNLV with 15 assists bringing her total to 25 through two sets. The Cardinals came into the third set on fire and used runs of 3-0 and 9-0 to get out to an early lead of 16-3. Louisville never slowed up and was able to extend the lead to 22-5. Emily Juhl ended the third set with a kill at the net to give the Cardinals the set 25-6, which was the fewest points allowed in a set since UConn had 7 in the first set in 2011. Louisville improved their hitting percentage from .125 through two sets to .215 through three sets, after hitting .560 in the third. The Cards were also able to dominate the net in the set by posting four blocks to that of zero by UNLV. UNLV came out strong after a rough third set and went up early 8-5. The Rebels extended their lead in the midst of an 8-1 run to give them a 12-5 advantage. However, the Cardinals came back with their own run of 6-0 to narrow the deficit to 11-12. The Cardinals continued the run to 9-1 and were able to gain the lead at 14-13. Lola Arslanbekova then added three straight scoring kills for Louisville during a 4-1 run to give U of L the 18-16 lead. Lola came up big again with a service ace to give the Cards a 23-18 advantage that they did not look back from. Kaitlynn James took the set and match point with a kill at the net 25-21. The Cardinals will play Miami (Fla.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center.
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