TicketsVolleyball Sweeps Dayton For 13th Win
Contact: Shawn Sell
9/23/2003
Julie DuPont led all players with 18 kills against Dayton. |
DAYTON, Ohio---Julie DuPont, Leslie Newell and Rachel Torblaa all reached double figure kills and Cincinnati hit .317 as a team en route to a three-game sweep of Dayton on Tuesday night at the Frericks Center on UD?s campus.
DuPont?s 18 kills led all players and helped the Bearcats improve to 13-2 on the year. Christy Utnage led the home team with 16 kills as the Flyers slipped to 10-5. Newell played one of her best games of the season, carding 14 kills and hitting a team-best .435. Torblaa tacked on 10 kills, while hitting .320.
UC also put four players in double figure digs led by Lindsey Garrison with 15. Maria Pongonis chipped in 13, while DuPont and Laura Lauder each added 10. The Bearcats also held the edge in blocks with 11, led by Myanna Hellsten with five. Lauder paced the Cincinnati offense with 52 assists.
?Tonight we got a good win against a good team,? said Bearcat head coach Reed Sunahara. ?We are happy to get out of here with a win and get some time off before we open conference play. It was just a great team effort tonight.?
The home team came out firing in game one, opening a lead of as much as five at 12-7. Behind the play of DuPont, the Bearcats came charging back, scoring nine of the next 10 points to take a 16-13 advantage. DuPont was huge during the run, picking up four kills, while Hellsten, Newell and Lauder each added one.
After Newell?s kill to make it a three-point Cincinnati lead, Dayton burned a time-out that seemed to do the trick as the Flyers scored six of the next nine to draw to within a point at 19-18. Torblaa answered with a Bearcat kill and DuPont followed with another, but a questionable block error was whistled against UC, wiping out DuPont?s kill and leading Sunahara to be cautioned by head referee Patty Salvatore.
Dayton kept the momentum with two straight points that led to at Cincinnati timeout at 21-20. A stoppage in play again proved fruitful, as the Bearcats ripped off three consecutive points to regain a lead they would not relinquish. DuPont and Newell carried the Bearcats for the remainder of the first frame as each picked up a pair of kills. After Dayton got to within two, Lauder took matters into her own hands, closing out game one with a kill.
The Bearcats were solid on the stat sheet in game one, holding a .444 to .354 advantage in hitting. DuPont was dominant in the first frame, carding eight kills and hitting .727. Newell added on six kills, with Lauder leading the offense with 21 assists. On the defensive side, Garrison led all players with seven digs. Utnage led the Flyers in game one with six kills, while Erin Treadway and Faye Barhorst each added four.
Game two featured three ties at the outset before UD drew out to a 7-4 advantage on a kill by Treadway. DuPont answered with back-to-back kills, but Treadway responded with one of her own to keep the Dayton lead at two. The Bearcats were able to pull to a 14-12 lead, though, with an 8-4 run highlighted by three DuPont kills. The home team came back to tie the frame at 15, before UC reopened a four-point margin with a 4-1 run.
From there, Dayton could get no closer than within two points as the Bearcats opened a lead of as great as five. Faced with a game point at 29-24, the Flyers got a kill by Shannon Gardner and an ace by Treadway to force a Cincinnati timeout. Pongonis ended game two in the same manner Lauder had in the first game with a kill to send UC into the break with a two-game advantage after a 30-26 win.
DuPont continued her assault in the second frame with seven more kills to give her 15 for the match on .464 hitting. Newell was up to nine kills by the end of game two, while Pongonis had seven. The Bearcats again outhit the Flyers in game two, this time by a .283 to .175 count. Utnage led the home team after two frames with 10 kills.
The third game was tightly contested despite the Bearcats jumping to a 4-0 lead, on three Torblaa kills and a Flyer error. Dayton charged back with four points of their own to tie the score. After the Bearcats pulled to a 6-4 advantage, the Flyers went on a 7-3 run on the strength of two kills each by Treadway and Utnage to take an 11-9 edge.
The score was tied on two more occasions, before Pongonis? kill put UC ahead to stay at 14-13. The Bearcat lead grew to as much to six as Newell picked up three straight kills and Pongonis added two. The two teams traded points until the Bearcats had a 27-23 lead. Utnage single handedly kept the Flyers in the match, carding three kills to get Dayton within 28-26 and force a Cincinnati timeout. After the break, Newell registered her 14th kill to set up match point, which UC quickly took advantage on a block by Torblaa and Newell to end the contest.
After solid hitting in the first two frames, the Bearcats dipped to .229 for the final frame, but were able to pull out the win by holding Dayton to .158.
The Bearcats will now take a week and a half break before opening Conference USA play, hosting Marquette on Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m.