Dec. 3, 2004
Final Stats
Columbia, Mo. -
Illinois-Louisville box score in PDF Format
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Illinois won the first game off No. 19 Louisville in over two months, but it was not enough to withstand a strong hitting and blocking Cardinal team as Louisville knocked off the Illini 30-27, 21-30, 30-19, 30-23 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Columbia, Mo.
Illinois spotted the Cardinals a pair of four-point leads in game one, only to battle back to tie. Illinois took its first lead at 9-8 on kills from the middle from Meghan Macdonald. Louisville went back in front at 16-12 only to see Illinois come roaring back thanks in large part to the swing of Rachel VanMeter, whose two right-side kills gave the Illini their other two leads of the game at 18-17 and 19-18. Louisville took the lead back at 25-21 after a 7-2 run. Jen Hynds had two monster blocks to close the gap to 25-24, but Louisville responded by scoring five of the final eight points of the game. Hynds had four kills and hit .500 for the game. The Illini ran into a stiff blocking team with the Cardinals countering six blocks in the opening game.
The Illini were dominant through most of game two, out-hitting the Cardinals, .302-.071. Rasa Virsilaite was a spark in the game with four kills and two solo blocks. More importantly Illinois didn't allow Louisville a single block. VanMeter had nine kills and hit .444 in the second game. The Illini jumped to an 11-5. but Louisville came all the way back to tie it a 17-17. VanMeter and Macdonald had back-to-back kills to again put Illinois in front. Four straight points off the Kathleen Bazzetta serve put the game firmly in Illinois' favor (25-18). VanMeter pounded out two kills to polish off an impressive 30-21 victory.
Louisville again regained the form that it had earlier in the match in game three. The Cardinals hit .425 to the Illini's .111. Louisville led the entire game, including leads of 12-6, 17-9 and 19-10. Illinois inched closer off a Hynds-Obermeier block to make it 20-16 Louisville. The Cardinals won 10 of the final 13 points of the game. The Illini tried to hang on in game four, but the Cardinal attack was stifling once again as they triumphed 30-23 to finish the match in four games.
VanMeter paced Illinois with 19 kills, leading three Illini in double figures in that department. Virsilaite added 15 kills and Jen Hynds 12 kills. Macdonald hit a team-best .353 with nine kills. Illinois hit .216 as a team but was stymied by the 12 blocks from the Louisville front line. Illinois had nine blocks as a team.
