Louisville Outlasts DC West 26-24, 25-20 (10-18-11)

Louisville rode the wicked jump serve of Senior Natalie Minchow and the strong blocks of Morgan Dittberner and Megan Poland to notch their 15th victory of the year against DC West who boasts a 17-8 record on the season. Two of the Falcon’s losses have come at the hands of the Lions who swept the Falcons 2-0 earlier this year at the Louisville Booster Tournament.

Louisville fell behind early in the first set 10-14 but dug deep and never lost control of the game thanks to the balanced fire power of Minchow & Samantha Lane who recorded seven kills in the opening set. Megan Poland, a senior blocker, provided the defense sending back two solo blocks for Lion scores. After gaining the momentum, the first set tilted in Louisville’s favor. DC West played catch up for the remainder of the set pushing Louisville into extended points at 26-24, before the Lions emerged with the first set advantage.

Louisville followed a similar routine in set two, falling behind early 4-10 before coming alive at the hands of Minchow’s jumper that registered six aces in the match, demoralizing the Falcon defense. Lane also had a good night from the service line in set two. With the score knotted at 17, the strapping sophomore tossed two aces during her five point stretch to put the Lions up 22-17, giving the Lions their first lead since the 1-0 start. That five point run proved to be the difference in the game. Louisville took one last offensive punch from Rachel Wald who pulled the Falcons within two at 22-20 before Minchow once again drilled the DC West defense and finished off the set 25-20 with the final point coming on her final ace of the evening.

“Natalie did a great job with her jump serves and had a good floor game, as well,” Coach Davenport commented. “Morgan Dittberner had three solo blocks that were big for us.”

DC West was led in kills by Rachel Wald. Wald also netted three aces on the evening.

Louisville, now 15-11 on the season, is beginning to realize its potential having improved on last years record by five wins with at least three matches remaining in the season. A good measure of the Lions growth came last week when Mead, who the Lions had beaten easily in a three game sweep, took second in the ECNC Conference Tournament. Louisville travels to Palmyra on Tuesday, October 25 for a triangular featuring the host Panthers and East Butler.

Louisville (kills-aces-blocks): S. Lane 4-2-1, M. Zahn 0-0-0, T.Dean 2-1-0,
M. Shepard 0-0-0, M. Poland 0-2-0, N. Minchow 10-7-1, M. Dittberner 2-0-3
Set assists: Shepard (11), Minchow (5)

Statistics are unofficial.