Louisville, Ky. - The No. 4 seeded Louisville Cardinals outscored the No. 2 Cincinnati Bearcats 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20) to earn their third BIG EAST Volleyball Championship since joining the league in 2005. Louisville received strong performances from the tournament's Most Outstanding player, freshman Lola Arslanbekova, and seniors Lecia Brown and Justine Landi to earn their second-straight conference title. < The two teams came out strong in the first set, trading points until the 7-7 mark. Louisville began to pull away and opened its biggest lead of five points with the score at 18-13. Cincinnati made a late run to close within one at 21-20. The Cardinals benefited from Bearcat errors down the stretch which sealed the first set in UofL's favor 25-22.

Cincinnati got down early in the second set 3-0, but rebounded with a 7-1 run to get back in the game. Louisville refused to get down and tied the set at 14. The Cardinals kept battling and retook the lead, 17-16 after a Cincinnati attack error. Louisville kept control the rest of the set as Landi registered kills at critical points which gave the Cardinals the set, 25-21. 

Louisville continued its strong play out of the break in the third set. The Cardinals jumped out to an early 8-4 lead, forcing Cincinnati to use an early timeout. The Bearcats fought back out of the break, tying the game at 13 on a solo block from sophomore Missy Harpenau. The teams again traded points until the 15-15 mark when Cincinnati got a point on a Louisville error and did not look back, maintaining the lead throughout the rest of the set for a 25-22 win.

The fourth set opened with the teams going back-and-forth until the 6-6 mark. Louisville used a 3-0 run to pull away from the Bearcats and kept the lead for the rest of the set. The Cardinals used another 3-0 run to close out the set, highlighted by the final kill by Arslanbekova, who tallied her 25th of the game, a 2009 tournament high.

The Louisville Cardinals will represent the BIG EAST Conference at the 2009 NCAA Championship. The first rounds are set for campus sites on Dec. 3-5.

2009 BIG EAST Championship Awards
Most Outstanding Player
Lola Arslanbekova, Louisville, Fr., OH

All-Tournament Team
Lola Arslanbekova, Louisville, Fr., OH
Kristen Dealy, Notre Dame, So., OH
Emily Hayden, Cincinnati, Fr., MB
Justine Landi, Louisville, Sr., RS
Pamela Luiz, USF, Sr., OH
Lindsay Mango, Louisville, Jr., L
Stephanie Niemer, Cincinnati, Jr., OH