SMU Volleyball Loses To Louisville
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DALLAS (SMU) – SMU suffered its first American Athletic Conference loss Friday night, falling 3-0 to conference preseason favorite Louisville in the Dedman Center (25-19, 25-14, 25-17). Abbey Bybel led the offensive attack for the Mustangs with 10 kills, matching Louisville’s Emily Juhl for the match-high, and the SMU sophomore hit a team-high .308.
Freshman Morgan Heise led the defensive efforts for SMU with 16 digs, the most this season in a three-set match. Lozano had three of SMU’s four blocks, and Caroline Young had three blocks with nine kills.
The Cardinals (7-6, 3-0 American) finished the match with a 25-17 win in the third set. With the score tied 11-11, Louisville went on a 5-1 run to take a 16-12 lead. The Mustangs (10-6, 2-1 American) rallied for the next two points, but the Cardinals pushed the lead back to four. Louisville didn’t let SMU back within three points the rest of the set to end the match.
The Mustangs took a 7-3 lead in the first set, but the Cardinals rallied back to tie the score 8-8. SMU scored the next two points, but then Louisville used an 11-1 run to
take a 19-11 lead. The Mustangs battled back, cutting the lead to two, 20-18. Bybel sparked the run, scoring three kills, but the Cardinals scored five of the next six points to take the first set 25-19. Bybel had a team-high four kills in the set, and Heise had five of SMU’s nine digs.
In the second set, it was the Cardinals taking an early lead, scoring eight of the first 11 points. The Mustangs cut the lead to two, 10-8, but that was a close as they got. Louisville went on a 12-4 run, taking advantage of eight SMU errors during the stretch. Heise kept the Mustangs in it defensively, scoring seven kills, but the Cardinals had five blocks and hit .344 to take a 2-0 lead in the match with the 25-14 win.
The Mustangs wrap up the first home weekend of conference matches Sunday against Cincinnati at 1 p.m. There is no charge for admission to all home matches, which are played in the Dedman Center on campus.
