Charles Koch Arena was filled with almost two thousand fans as the Shocker Volleyball team took on the Cardinals from Louisville Tuesday night.

The Shockers won 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, and 15-10 with Sam Sanders leading the team in kills with 16 kills, Katie Reilly leading the team in digs with 17, and then Chelsey Feekin adding 51 assists for the match.

The match started with both teams going back and forth with the score, which led to a tie at nine. The Cardinals pulled away on back-to-back 5 point runs to extend the lead to 20-14 because of great attacking by their senior Brooke Mattingly. The Shockers still found a way to fight back late, but it wasn’t enough in the end as they lost the set 20-25.

The second set started out very similarly to the first, as both teams were neck and neck at nine points apiece. Then the score became tied at 20 because of a fantastic kill from Katie Reilly down the sideline. Ashley Andrade then proceeded to win three out of the next five points, with the team ending up pulling away at the end of the set to win 25-22.

For the third set, the team came out of the locker room absolutely on fire pulling out to a very early six to two lead before again finding themselves tied at nine. The Cardinals came back to tie it up. The teams traded points before the Shockers’ front line started attacking with fury to give them a lead 23-19 before taking the set 25-21.

The fourth set came and the teams continued to both compete at a high level that lead to a tie at 11. The Cardinals were attacking ferociously with a solid percentage, which the Shockers couldn’t respond to. Several attack errors by the Shockers lead to a Cardinal victory in the fourth set 25-22.

“Going into that fifth set I just told the team they had to make plays and keep competing and fighting,” said Coach Chris Lamb.

The final set the shockers came out dominating to a 4-0 lead, which lead to a 12-8 lead late in the set. Blocking by the front line then lead the Shockers to victory in the final set by a score of 15-10.

“Winning this game was much needed because since we didn’t play [Oklahoma] this year we needed a big non-conference win at home,” said Sam Sanders, outside hitter and WSU senior.

The Shockers are now 17-4 on the season with a conference record of 6-1 with their sole conference loss to Illinois State on Oct. 11.

The Shockers are back in action on Friday at 6 p.m. at Charles Koch Arena to play the Bradley Braves. Then on Saturday the team will host the Loyola Ramblers for the first time ever in Missouri Valley play, also at home with a 7 p.m. start.

“Bradley surprised a lot of people this year and we don’t know much about them, we actually know more about Loyola and come tomorrow in practice we will have a game plan for both teams,” Lamb said.