Melanie McHenry Notches 18 Kills as Louisville Upsets #24 Florida St.

MATCH STATS

• Louisville def. #24 Florida State 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 31-29)
• Louisville improves to 8-5 (2-1 ACC); #24 Florida State falls to 8-3 (2-1 ACC)
• Louisville, Kentucky (ACC Match)
• Attendance: 1,076
• Box Score

Louisville, Kentucky – Louisville continued their home court success in a sweep of #24 Florida State that ended with a wild third set of play. The win muddles up the top of the ACC standings, as Florida State appeared to be the top contender in the conference.

The Cardinals were led by Melanie McHenry in the match as she totaled 18 kills (while hitting .385) in just the three sets of action. It wasn’t just the offense either, as McHenry posted 11 digs for a double-double and a pair of assists.

It wasn’t a one woman show for the Cardinals though as Wilma Rivera (41 assists, 11 digs, three blocks) dished out plenty of opportunities for others such as Jasmine Bennett (13 kills while hitting .367) and Maggie DeJong (nine kills while hitting .643). Meanwhile, Florida State almost forced a fourth and stayed in striking distance behind Milica Kubura (11 kills while hitting .290) and Christina Ambrose (11 kills while hitting .346).

Overall, Louisville was the much better offensive team in a match that didn’t have a ton of blocking (just four blocks for each team). They had 52 kills and 14 errors (.270) compared to 39 kills and 17 errors (.172) for Florida State. An aggressive but inaccurate serving match from Louisville provided 13 service errors though, keeping the Seminoles around for the match. Additionally, both back rows played solid defense considering the lack of block, as Cecilie Woie (19 digs) helped Florida State out-dig Louisville and Molly Sauer (17 digs) 67-64.

After Louisville won the first two sets by 25-20 scores, Florida State was determined to make the third more challenging. After Louisville jumped ahead 20-16 in the final set, Florida State went on a 5-1 run to tie at 21. From there, the next eight points went back-and-forth on side outs until the Seminoles earned set point at 26-25. The set points would switch back to Louisville at 27-26, then again to Florida State at 28-27 and once more Louisville at 29-28. Finally, after a McHenry kill put Louisville ahead 30-29, an attack error from Florida State ended the match.

Louisville now will stay home for another Florida school as Miami (FL) comes to town as they look for another victory. Florida State isn’t done with tough road matches for the week as now they head to South Bend, Indiana to take on (RV) Notre Dame.

PRESS RELEASES:

Courtesy of Louisville:

Outside hitter Melanie McHenry had 18 kills with 11 digs to lead the University of Louisville volleyball team to a 25-20, 25-20, 31-29 upset of No. 21-ranked Florida State in ACC action Friday night in a sold out Cardinal Arena.

“First of all its awesome to see this place full and rocking and our players they felt really prepared and when they are prepared they play well,” said UofL head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. “They came out and took it from Florida State, we’ve challenged them to improve on their errors and they had very few attack errors tonight and that was really good to see.”

UofL (8-5, 2-1) hit .270 with four blocks and three aces.  The Cardinals got 13 kills from Jasmine Bennett, who added an ace and a block. Maggie DeJong had nine kills and two blocks. Wilma Rivera had 41 assists and 11 digs.  FSU (8-3, 2-1) had 11 kills apiece from Milica Kubura and Christina Ambrose and hit .172 as a team with four blocks a pair of aces.

“We didn’t use all our timeouts  even though it was so close because that’s one thing we’re trying to let them work through some things,” said Busboom Kelly. “This team, they want it and I never have to question that. So our leadership took over. You saw Molly Sauer make some big plays and then obviously Melanie  at the end. “We need our six-rotation players to step up when the games are on the line and they all did that tonight.”

In the first set,  UofL used a 4-0 run to get a breathing room and force FSU to burn a timeout down 14-10.  The Noles cut the lead to one at 19-18 on a Cardinal hitting error.  FSU was outscored 6-2 down the stretch, falling 25-20.  Jasmine Bennett had the winning kill, as part of her five of the set.  The Cards hit a toasty .349 in the set and added an ace and a block.

UofL maintained the lead early in the second set, taking a 16-12 lead just after the media timeout.  UofL hit 18-15 on a Maggie DeJong kill and sparked an FSU timeout.  Louisville got set point on a Seminole service error.  DeJong scored on the slide to give the Cardinals the 25-20 win and a 2-0 set lead going into the break.

In the third set. the teams tied 18 times with the lead changing hands six times.  UofL got to set and match point at 24-23 on a FSU error and then proceeded to trade points back and forth.  The Cards tied at 27 and Melanie McHenry scored four of the Cards final five points before a Seminole error gave the set and match to the Cardinals.

The Cardinals face an undefeated Miami team on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Cardinal Arena.

“Miami has one of the best outside hitters in the ACC so we have challenge to slow her down,” said Busboom Kelly about Olga Strantali of the Hurricanes.

Courtesy of Florida State: