LHS Tops Two ECNC Foes (9-27-11)
--by Mark Minchow

Louisville won a pair of matches in a rare home appearance, beating Johnson County Central 2-1 before sweeping Weeping Water 2-0.

Lions Trip Thunderbirds 23-25, 25-16, 25-20
In a rematch of a contest that Louisville won easily at last weekend's Louisville Booster Tournament, the Lions got off to a very slow start. The team had several serve errors and misconnected on enough attacks to keep Johnson County in the lead through much of the game. Mackenzie Faris lead the Thunderbird attack, helping Johnson County pull out to a lead of 16-19.

Tori Dean helped the Lions fight back, scoring on some well placed line shots, narrowing the score to 23-24 before the Thunderbirds scored the final point to capture the first set. Despite falling short, the Lions had regained some critical momentum at the end of the game that would carry over into the rest of the match.

In set two, Louisville began to settle down and eliminate their errors. The lead changed hands several times until the score was knotted at 10-10. Then the Lions began to find their rhythm with Natalie Minchow connecting on a string of attacks that helped put the Lions in command of a 19-11 lead. A kill from Samantha Lane helped snuff out any chance of a Johnson County comeback as Louisville cruised to win the set 25-16.

Set three began in much the same way as the previous set with the teams trading points back and forth until the score was tied at 15-15. But the Thunderbirds had no answer for the the quick attacks of Morgan Dittberner and the Lions pulled away to win 25-20 and capture the match.

The end result pleased Louisville head coach, Marge Davenport. "We started a little sluggish against JCC then settled down and finished the game with communication and enthusiasm."

Louisville (kills-aces-blocks): S. Lane 9-1-1, M. Zahn 1-1-0, T.Dean 6-0-0,
M. Shepard 0-1-0, M. Poland 1-0-0, N. Minchow 8-1-0, M. Dittberner 9-1-1
H. Rose 0-0-0
Set assists: Minchow (15), Shepard (9), Rose (1)

Louisville Sweeps Weeping Water 25-22, 25-11
Weeping Water entered the first set on a roll, having just beaten JCC 25-18, 25-22. Marylyn Mozena helped the Indians keep it up through much of the set, never falling too far behind the Lions. Louisville won most of the critical long rallies to outlast Weeping Water 25-22. The Lions got good help off the bench with Jordyn Marcoe filling in for Megan Poland, who'd taken a hard fall diving to save a ball.

In the second set, the backline passing of McKenna Zahn, Tori Dean, and Hannah Rose was the best it's been all season, enabling Louisville setter Madison Shepard to deliver balls spot on target to the frontline hitters. Natalie Minchow, Morgan Dittberner, and Samantha Lane hammered Weeping Water into submission, keeping the Lions' momentum going through the end of the game, running away to 25-11 victory.

"We started to click on our passing and had some nice defensive plays. Hannah came in off the bench and had several saves in the back row," said Louisville coach Marge Davenport. "It was nice to get two conference wins tonight".

The victories improved the Lions' season mark to 12-7 heading into Thursday's match at Lincoln Christian (4-10). Start time is scheduled for 7:00.

Louisville (kills-aces-blocks): S. Lane 5-0-0, M. Zahn 0-0-0, T.Dean 3-1-0,
M. Shepard 0-2-0, J. Marcoe 0-0-0, N. Minchow 10-1-1, M. Dittbrerner 7-1-1,
H. Rose 0-0-0
Set assists: Minchow (10), Shepard (10), Dean (1)


Statistics are unofficial.