TicketsBearcats Close Homestand With Miami (Ohio)
UC looking for 18th straight home win
Contact: Shawn Sell
9/6/2004
Maria Pongonis helped UC to a 3-0 start over the weekend. |
SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati volleyball team will wrap up a season-opening four-match homestand, when they host local rival Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday (Sept. 7) at 7:30 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center. UC is 3-0 on the season after winning its own Vernon Manor Bearcat Invitational over the weekend. The RedHawks are 1-1 after splitting a pair of home matches in the opening weeked of play.
NOTES FROM THE BEARCAT INVIATIONAL:
? The Bearcats extended their home-match winning streak to 17 with a trio of wins. The string ties the school record which was previously established from Sept. 7, 1999-Oct. 18, 2000.
? Head coach Reed Sunahara moved within one victory of tying Mike Lingenfelter for the most coaching wins in school history. Sunahara, with 100 career victories at UC, is just one win shy of Lingenfelter?s mark that was established from 1986-87 and 1993-95.
? Julie DuPont became just the fifth player in school history to join the 1,000 kill-1,000 dig club. DuPont, who has 1,611 kills and 1,004 digs in her career, joins Sonja Jackson, Dani Peterson, Becky Tenkman and Trish Ladusaw in the elite order.
? Maria Pongonis matched her career-high in digs with 15 against Kent State. She previously had recorded 15 vs. Saint Louis last year.
? Rachel Torblaa set a new career-best with four service aces, two better than her previous best.
? Noel Olson registered a new career-high in assists with 25 against Kent State. Olson?s old mark was 22 vs. Brown in 2003.
? UC?s Jenny Custer, Natalie Dossman and Erin Maldo all made their collegiate debuts.
? DuPont started the season with three straight double-doubles, while Dossman had at least 10 digs in each of the three contests.
? DuPont (MVP), Torblaa and Myanna Hellsten all earned all-tournament team honors.
ABOUT MIAMI (OHIO): The RedHawks are 1-1 this season, after splitting home matches with TCU (win) and No. 19 Illinois (loss) over the weekend. Miami was originally slated to travel to Gainesville, Fla. for a tournament hosted by Florida, but instead hosted the Hurricane Frances Classic in Millett Hall after the storm cancelled the trip south. Three RedHawk players registered at least three kills per game in the opening weekend, led by Angie Zent?s 3.57 per game. Defensively, libero Suzy Wolford registered 3.29 digs per game, while Carli Reihman recorded 1.71 blocks per game. The Bearcats have won 18 of 30 all-time meetings with Miami, including the last three.
LAST TIME AGAINST MIAMI (OHIO): The Bearcats opened play in the Miami Invitational with a three-game sweep of the RedHawks in a match played Sept. 12, 2003 in Millett Hall. Julie DuPont had 16 kills in the match, while Leslie Newell added 11 on .500 hitting. On the defensive side, UC limited Miami to .102 hitting, as Myanna Hellsten had six blocks and Lindsey Garrison posted 14 digs.
REMEMBERING STEPH: The Bearcats will play their 2004 season in honor of assistant coach and former UC star player Stephanie (Meinig) Rosfeld, who passed away unexpectedly during the preseason. UC will honor Stephanie?s number 10, as no player will wear the number this season, while the entire team?s uniforms will bear the initials SAR and the number 10.
ALMOST NUMBER ONE: Cincinnati head coach Reed Sunahara moved one step closer to becoming the winningest coach in school history with a trio of wins during the Bearcat Invitational. Sunahara earned his 100th win at Cincinnati with a victory over Kent State and has moved within one win of Mike Lingenfelter for first place on the school career win list. Lingenfelter recorded 101 wins in his five-year career, which covered 1986-87 and 1993-95. Sunahara, now in his fifth year as the Bearcats? mentor, is 119-73 (.620) in his coaching career, with an even more impressive 100-33 (.752) mark at UC.
DUPONT JOINS ELITE CLUB: As she has so many times during her career, Julie DuPont made history in the Sept. 4 match against Kent State. Against the Golden Flashes, DuPont became just the fifth UC player ever with 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. DuPont, with 1,611 kills and 1,004 digs, joins an exclusive club that includes Sonja Jackson (1,443 kills; 1,135 digs), Dani Peterson (1,040 kills; 1,132 digs), Becky Tenkman (1,843 kills; 1,303 digs) and Trish Ladusaw (1,465 kills; 2,074 digs).
INSIDE THE POLLS: Following the season-opening four-match home stand, the Bearcats will embark on one of the toughest stretches of the schedule as three of their next seven opponents are listed in the USA Today/CSTV national rankings. UC will participate in tournaments at No. 22 Loyola Marymount (Sept. 10-11) and No. 25 Wisconsin (Sept. 17-18), with the big finale coming on Sept. 20 with a trip to NCAA Final Four participant and preseason No. 5 Minnesota. The Bearcats will also face No. 18 Louisville in the final Conference USA match of the year on Nov. 12.
HIGH RISER: Maria Pongonis once again showed her importance to UC?s all-around success during the Bearcat Invitational. For the tournament, Pongonis averaged 3.25 kills and 3.75 digs per game. With Pongonis hitting in the negatives in the first two matches, the team struggled to .237 and .190 team hitting efforts. But Pongonis and the team turned it around in the weekend finale against Kent State, as Pongonis hit .387 and registered 16 kills and Bearcats hit a weekend-best .339.
HOME SWEET HOME: Three wins in the opening weekend of play allowed the Bearcats to match the school record of 17 straight home wins, established from a Sept. 7, 1999 win over Dayton to an Oct. 18, 2000 defeat to Louisville. The Bearcats will go for the school record in Tuesday?s clash with Miami (Ohio). Since the opening of Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center, the Bearcats have been nothing short of dominant on their home floor. In the 14 years the building has been in existence, the Bearcats have posted a 116-50 (.699) record at home, with exactly half of those losses coming in a three-year span from 1991-93. UC has lost only one match at home in each of the last four years, with just one coming outside of Conference USA play.
DUPONT NEARING HISTORY: During her career, senior Julie DuPont has made her mark as one of the top players in program history and she is on the verge of reaching another career milestone. DuPont, who is tops in school history in kills per game with 4.63, ranks third on the kills chart with 1,611. Cathy Guye is next for DuPont on the list with 1,636 kills from 1987-90. DuPont also ranks in the UC annals in attempts (third), digs per game (seventh) and block assists (ninth).
SISTER, SISTER: Senior Leslie Newell will have a unique opportunity during her final season as a collegiate player, as her and her Bearcat teammates will play contests against both of Newell?s younger sisters. UC will host IUPUI with youngest sister Carol, a freshman, on Sept. 28, before Conference USA rival Charlotte and sibling Lisa, a junior visit on Nov. 5. Leslie Newell has bettered sister Lisa in all three of the sisters? head-to-head match-ups. UC has won each of the last regular season match-ups between the school?s, while also taking a C-USA Tournament quarterfinal win in 2002.
C-USA COACHES SPEAK: For the third consecutive campaign, the Bearcats have been selected second in the preseason poll of Conference USA coaches. UC, after sharing the Conference USA regular season championship with Louisville, was once again chosen one spot back of the Cardinals. In addition, senior Julie DuPont, the reigning C-USA Player of the Year, was tabbed the league?s preseason player of the year.
TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE: The Bearcats entered 2004 with the huge task of replacing setter Laura Lauder. Lauder was not only a four-year starter, but statistically was the best setter in school history, accumulating 5,946 in her career. To fill Lauder?s shoes, the Bearcats have turned to the combination of sophomore Noel Olson and freshman Jenny Custer and through three matches, the duo has been solid. The duo led the Bearcats to 14.78 assists per game during the Bearcat Invitational, including 7.11 by Olson. Custer, who lined up as a hitter while Olson was on the court, averaged 6.89 assists per game and added 1.56 kills, 1.33 digs and 1.11 blocks per game. Olson set a new career-high with 25 assists against Kent State, while Custer had at least 20 assists in all three contests.
BEARCATS IN C-USA: In the eight years of Conference USA play, the Bearcats have gone 106-26 for an .803 winning percentage, ranking second in both, trailing only Louisville. The Bearcats have now won 70 of their last 83 matches against C-USA opponents. Five of the 13 losses have been to Louisville, while four have come against USF. The marks exclude C-USA Tournament play.
MORE OUTSTANDING FRESHMEN: Head Coach Reed Sunahara and his staff have once again assembled another outstanding freshmen class that appears poised to continue the tradition of outstanding freshmen at UC. During the nine years of Conference USA Volleyball, the Bearcats have featured five freshman or co-freshman of the year in the league. Myanna Hellsten continued the run last year, capturing league and region freshman of the year honors, giving UC four recipients of the C-USA award in the last five years. This year?s crop includes promising newcomers Jenny Custer, Natalie Dossman, Erin Maldo, Hannah May and Jessie Nevitt. In the first weekend of the season, both Custer and Dossman moved into the starting line-up with instant success. Custer played both hitter and setter, averaging 1.56 kills and 6.89 assists per game. Dossman registered double digit digs in all three contests as the starting libero, averaging 4.22 digs per game. Maldo saw limited action, averaging 2.00 kills and 1.00 dig per game.
BEARCATS NEAR TOP 25: After becoming nationally-ranked for the first time in program history and ascending as high as No. 20 in the USA Today/AVCA rankings last season, the Bearcats are just outside of the top-25 in the second poll of the year. The poll, now known as the USA Today/College Sports Television rankings, shows UC in the No. 29 spot in the nation. The Bearcats received 85 points this week, down from 110 last week.
LOOKING AHEAD: Following the home match with Miami (Ohio), the Bearcats will embark on an eight-match road swing over the next three weeks. UC travels to Loyola Marymount Furama Hotel Invitational this weekend for matches against Washington State, LMU and Miami (Fla.). The Bearcats don?t play at home again until Sept. 28 when they host IUPUI.