TicketsUC Clinches C-USA Bye With Sweep Of ECU
Bearcats earn ninth straight 20-win season
Contact: Shawn Sell
11/6/2004
Julie DuPont moved to third in C-USA history in kills in UC's win over East Carolina. |
CINCINNATI, Ohio---Cincinnati clinched a bye in the upcoming Conference USA Tournament and earned its ninth straight 20-win season with a three-game victory over East Carolina on Saturday night in college volleyball action. UC was victorious by scores of 30-18, 30-17, 30-28.
UC, now 20-8 overall and 10-2 in C-USA play, will not have to compete in the first round of the league tournament, which gets underway Nov. 19 in Louisville, for the 10th straight year. The Bearcats? victory, coupled with Memphis? loss at USF set up the first round bye for UC.
Julie DuPont led the Bearcat offense with a match-high 13 kills, moving into third place on the C-USA career kills chart in the process. DuPont now has 2,063 kills for her career, 11 more than former DePaul standout Stephanie Bishop. Myanna Hellsten (12) and Maria Pongonis (11) were also in double figures for the Bearcats.
?I thought we played pretty well tonight,? said Bearcat head coach Reed Sunahara. ?We put together three good games and we gave lots of players chances to play which was good. I think playing well tonight will help us build confidence for playing Louisville.?
East Carolina scored the first point of the match, but would never lead again in game one. The Bearcats took a four-point lead at 7-3 when Hellsten and Leslie Newell combined for a block. The Pirates responded to the deficit, however, scoring five of the next six points to knot the score at eight. ECU continued to hang around, trailing by just 13-12 when a DuPont attack sailed out of bounds. But it was then that the Bearcats blew the game wide open, utilizing a 13-4 run to open a double-digit lead at 25-15. Still leading by 10 at 26-16, DuPont and Hellsten registered back-to-back kills and the latter followed it with a block to set up game point. ECU then scored two in a row, but DuPont?s sixth kill of the game ended the 30-18 UC triumph.
Cincinnati fell behind 4-2 early in game two, but retook the lead for good on a Pirate service error that made it 6-5. As they had done in game one, the Bearcats once again used a sizable run to open a double figure lead. This time UC outscored ECU by a 13-4 count to take a 19-9 advantage. The Bearcats continued to build the lead and reached its largest margin, 13, on a Pirate error that closed the 30-17 Cincinnati win.
Game three saw the Bearcats again fall behind out of the gates and again blow the game open with a big run. Leading by just two at 11-9, the Bearcats went on a 13-3 spurt that made it a 24-12 contest. East Carolina scored five of the next seven, but could get no closer than eight points. Down the stretch, Sunahara went to his bench, giving playing time to freshmen Erin Maldo and Hannah May and allowing walk-on junior Jennifer Verville to make her collegiate debut. UC won the game by a 30-22 score.
For the evening, the Bearcats hit .275, while limiting East Carolina (12-16, 4-7 C-USA) to just .057. No Pirate players reached double figures in kills, as Paige Howell and Erica Wilson each had eight kills to pace ECU. Johanna Bertini led the Pirate defense with 17 digs, while Jaime Bevan recorded five blocks.
UC got a match-high 18 digs from DuPont, who matched her season-high with the total, and 14 from freshman Natalie Dossman. Rachel Torblaa and Hellsten each had three blocks for the Bearcats.
The Bearcats must now get primed for its annual showdown with Louisville. The Cardinals, ranked No. 22 nationally, have already clinched the C-USA regular season championship. UC and the Cardinals will square off next Friday (Nov. 12) at 7:30 p.m. at Cardinal Arena in Louisville.