TicketsBearcats Sweep Dayton On Senior Day
UC learns NCAA Tournament fate Sunday
Contact: Shawn Sell
11/27/2004
Maria Pongonis had 12 kills and 12 digs in UC's win over Dayton. |
CINCINNATI, Ohio---Cincinnati put four players in double figure kills and kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a three-game sweep of Atlantic 10 Conference Champions Dayton on Senior Day at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats won the non-conference contest by scores of 30-24, 30-26, 30-23.
The win improves UC?s record to 22-11 and concludes the Bearcats? 2004 regular season schedule. Cincinnati will find out if it will make its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance when the 64-team bracket is released on Sunday night. The announcement of the field will air live on ESPNNews, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
The Bearcats? trio of seniors were instrumental in the victory as Julie DuPont led the team with 14 kills and 13 digs. Rachel Torblaa added 13 kills on .435 hitting, while Leslie Newell tacked on six kills on .385 hitting. Maria Pongonis added a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs and Myanna Hellsten recorded 11 kills and five blocks.
The Flyers, who topped Xavier in last weekend?s A-10 final to earn an NCAA automatic bid, fall to 23-8 on the year. UD senior Christy Utnage led all players with 15 kills, while adding 11 digs.
?This was a good way to finish the regular season for us,? said Bearcat head coach Reed Sunahara. ?We are hoping we can extend our season at least one more week, though.?
The Bearcats got off to a bit of a slow start as they fell behind by four early in game one and trailed throughout much of the match. A kill by Utnage, followed by a Hellsten error put Dayton ahead 22-19, but also spelled the beginning of the end for the Flyers. The Bearcats concluded game one with an 11-2 run to take the 30-24 victory. UC got a balanced attack during the run, getting two kills each by Pongonis and Torblaa to highlight the game-winning spurt. UC hit .381 in the opening game, while limiting Dayton to .205.
Dayton got off to another good start in game two as a block by Shanna Pressler and Faye Barhorst put the visitors up 6-2. UC continued to trail until a 4-0 run pushed UC ahead for the first time in the game at 16-15. By the conclusion of game two, a total of 12 ties and six lead changes had occurred. Hellsten put the Bearcats up 23-21, but three straight blocks by the Flyers forced a UC timeout and put Dayton ahead 24-23. The Bearcats came out of the break on fire, sandwiching a pair of DuPont kills around two Flyer errors to take the lead for good at 27-24. Back-to-back kills by Hellsten set up game point for UC and following a Pressler kill, Newell?s kill sent the Bearcats into the break with a two game to none lead. UC hit a solid .265 in game two, while holding Dayton to a match-low .192.
The Bearcats managed to avoid the early deficit in game three as a 7-0 run pushed UC ahead 11-7 and forced a Dayton stoppage. Out of that break, Dayton scored four straight to retie the score. Cincinnati started to take control, though, scoring five of the next seven points to go ahead for good. Leading by just one at 16-15, UC quickly turned the edge into six points with a 5-0 run. Down the stretch, the Bearcats opened a lead of as much as nine and Torblaa?s 13th kill of the night ended the game with a 30-23 score in UC?s favor. The Bearcats continued to hit well in the game, finishing at .294 for the game, while Dayton tallied a match-best .250.
In addition to DuPont and Pongonis? double-doubles, freshman Natalie Dossman also reached double figure digs for the Bearcats with 11. Dayton?s Courtney Pettke (12) and Adrienne Green (11) were also in double figure digs.
Following the match, DuPont, Newell and Torblaa, along with team manager Ashlee Strete were all honored for their contributions to UC Volleyball.
?I couldn?t ask for a better group of seniors,? Sunahara said. ?They?ve all had great careers and they will be sadly missed. We finished strong today and they are the reason that we won.?