After playing 13 consecutive matches on the road to open the 2009 campaign the Cardinals came home for the first Heartland Conference contest of the season and it was a good beginning with the 3-0 straight-sets win over Oklahoma Panhandle.  The victory got UIW to 11-3 on the year.  OPSU dropped to 1-12 and 0-1 in league play.

Incarnate Word got leadership from its senior leaders as both middle Edie Weise and outside Emily Kopecki led all players with 12 kills each.  And in leading they both had impressive hitting percentages with Kopecki at .647 and Weise at .550.

In the first set the Cardinals got 14 positive points.  Weise had five of those and Kopecki four.  Set two saw the wealth spread around as of the first 10 UIW points seven came on kills by six different players.

In the third and deciding set Kopecki had five kills including four of the final five points.  At the same time sophomore middle Daniella Vidaurri came off the bench to be a definite factor.  She recorded five points in a variety of ways.

With the score still close at 8-7 for Incarnate Word, Vidaurri had a kill and a block assist and the Cardinals were off and running.  She put down another kill to get the score to 13-9 and then served an ace to go to 15-9 and UIW would not be threatened again.

The celebration will be short-lived however as Incarnate Word turns right around to play Newman at 2 p.m. on Saturday in another Heartland affair.  That match too is at home.  This comes in a time when UIW will be playing 10 of 12 matches at the McDermott Center.

OPSU   14         13         14

UIW      25         25         25

OPSU—Kills, Meredith Powell 9; Assists, Cheryl Coldwell 17; Aces, 0; Digs, Coldwell 8; Blocks, 0.

UIW—Kills, Emily Kopecki, Edie Weise, 12; Assists, Sarah Nordman 40; Aces, Nordman, Anna Herr, Spencer Ladd, Daniella Vidaurri, 1; Digs, Ladd 10; Blocks, Kopecki 1.

RECORDS:

OPSU   1-12 (0-1)

UIW      11-3 (1-0)