No. 4 Cardinals Take Down Lipscomb 3-0

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –– Claire Chaussee had 13 kills, hit .722 with a dig and a block to lead the No. 4-ranked University of Louisville volleyball team to a 25-14, 25-17, 26-24 sweep of Lipscomb Saturday evening at the Louisville Invitational at the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. In the first match of the session, No. 9 Purdue beat Xavier 3-0. 
 
UofL, now 7-1, hit .376 as a team with seven aces and 10 blocks. Phekran Kong recorded six kills, hit .455 and added four blocks. Cara Cresse had five kills and four blocks. Elena Scott had a match-high 14 digs and three aces.
 
Lipscomb (3-5) hit .134 with four aces and eight blocks. The Bison were led by Courtney Jones’ 10 kills. Addi Pelham had three kills and three blocks.
 
Elena Scott and Aiko Jones earned All-Louisville Tournament honors.
 
The Cardinals will head to Lexington for the Battle of the Bluegrass for a 7 p.m. match with No. 14 Kentucky in Memorial Coliseum.
Set 1
Louisville moved to an early lead of 7-4 when Amaya Tillman and Raquel Lazaro blocked Lipscomb.  After a Bison timeout at 11-7, UofL started rolling powered by a 4-0 run that included two straight blocks by Phekran Kong and Anna DeBeer.  Lipscomb used its final timeout of the set down 19-10 to little avail. Cara Cresse landed two straight aces to put Cards at set point. A kill by Claire Chaussee landed a kill shot down the line for the 25-14 win. Louisville’s .500 hitting percentage and five blocks proved too much for the Bison.
 
Set 2
The Cardinals used aggressive serving, including three aces by Elena Scott, to pop out to a 10-4 lead early in the second. Cara Cresse scored four straight points for the Cardinals and a kill by DeBeer and an ace from Elena Scott took the Cards up 16-10. Claire Chaussee had a hot hand in the front row, with a pair of kills and Scott landed her third ace to push the Cards to a 22-13 lead. Lipscomb put together a 4-1 run to close the gap to 23-17 but a kill by Aiko Jones  and a hitting error by LU tipped the set to the Cards 25-17.
 
Set 3
UofL used a 6-1 run early in the third set to take a 13-8 lead. After a pair of Lipscomb scores, the Cardinals spread the lead to six on a block by Cresse and Jones to go up 17-11.  The Bison made a push to get within three at 20-17 after a kill by Addi Pelham.  Lipscomb cut the lead to one at 21-20 when Nena Mbonu was…