Volleyball upsets the Bearcats

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Volleyball knocks off UC 3-2

-Field Hockey rolls over Nova 6-0

-Harmonious romps in the QE II

Lola Arslanbekova led the University of Louisville Volleyball team to victory Saturday in Cardinal Arena over the #21 ranked UC Bearcats in front of a packed house. The atmosphere was charged and frenetic as the Cards battled tooth and nail with the Bearcats over the 5 game match.

The Cards started poorly in the first game and fell behind by six early but rallied to take a 18-16 lead. Back and forth it went until Stephanie Niemer sent one of her game high 29 kills past the Cardinal defense to win it 25-23. Louisville started the second game much better and held a five point lead early but UC fought back and eventually pushed their advantage to 21-15. The Cards gained the next four points and UC took a timeout to regroup. Whatever they discussed worked...they got four out of the five final points to put Louisville away 25-20 and lead the match 2-0.

The Cards and Bearcats began the third game exchanging hitting streaks and battled to a 9-9 tie. Louisville used a 7-1 final run, though...to get their first game win 25-17. The fourth game was a tightly contested one...Louisville finally using a 6-1 run to forge a 18-14 lead and they held off a late UC rally to even the match at 2-2 with a narrow 25-22 victory. Anastasia Artemeva stepped up huge for the Cards in the fourth game with seven kills.

In the deciding game, the Cards took it to the Bearcats early and jumped out to a 6-3 advantage. UC regrouped, though and took five out of the next seven points to tie it a 8-8. Arslanbeckova took over at that point, though and produced four kills to lead the Cards on a 7-2 run that gave Louisville a 15-10 win. Arslanbeckova had 24 kills for the Cards (11-5, 6-1). It was the first conference loss for Cincinnati (17-4, 6-1) and Louisville's first win over a top 25 foe since 2007.

The Volley Cards return to the floor Wednesday in Cardinal Arena with a 7 p.m. match versus Lipscomb.

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Nicole Youman led Team Louisville to a 6-0 whitewash of Villanova earlier in the day at Trager Stadium. For the Cards, it was a case of scoring early and often against the Wildcats. Karah Nall took a penalty corner pass from Youman for the first goal just two minutes into the game. Shortly after that, Rachel Hollenbach drove to the top of the circle and batted a shot past Nova goalie Megan Goetz for the Cards next score. With 10 minutes gone in the contest, Jenna Ahern followed up a Youman miss on goal and guided the ball into the next and the Cards led 3-0.

They finished the first half scoring when Youman set up Hayley Taylor with a perfect pass to the left post and Taylor easily tallied the fourth Cardinal score.

The second half turned into a defensive struggle early and Louisville continued to keep Villanova away from the Cardinal goal. Youman intercepted a Nova feed, took the ball down the field and outfoxed two Wildcat defenders to slap one past Goetz to make it 5-0 at the twenty minute mark. The Cards added a late goal in the final minute of the game when Youman was on the receiving end of some excellent passing from Tuli Lim and Ahern and slid one by Nova for the 6-0 final.

The Cards ended with a 18-4 shot advantage and 12-1 corner edge in the game. Goalie Erin Conrad had three saves as Louisville (10-5, 4-1) clinched a playoff spot in the BIG EAST Tournament with the victory.

Sunday is Senior Day for Pam Bustin's squad. The team will honor Ahern, Youman, Lim, Nall, Hollenbach, Nikki Auker and Simone Attles following the game against Iowa. The 1 p.m start will be televised on WHAS11 television.

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WE told you yesterday that we thought HARMONIOUS would stand tall in the Grade I Queen Elizabeth II feature race at Keeneland yesterday. We were right. Joel Rosario guided the filly to a drawing away 4 length win over the 1-1/8 mile course past EVENING JEWEL to win the race at odds of 5/2. HARMONIOUS motored past the contenders midway thru the Keeneland stretch very impressively and the John Sherriff's trained filly looked much the best knocking off seven very talented foes. Close but no cigar for us, though...in the late Pick 4. After winning the first three legs of the wager, we lost in the final to a first time starter named TWINSPIRED trained by Michael Maker and ridden by Shane Sellers. Two of our final leg entries PHILOLOGY and JOJO'MOJO ran 2nd and 3rd...honestly, we thought we had a chance midway thru the stretch but PHILOLOGY just couldn't gain on the eventual winner

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The .50 Pick 4 paid $1674. Missed it by four lengths...

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