TicketsOct. 18, 2005
CINCINNATI, Ohio---Jessie Nevitt tallied a match-high 16 kills and Cincinnati limited Wright State to .017 hitting as the Bearcats earned a three-game sweep of the Raiders on Tuesday night in Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcat victory came by scores of 30-23, 30-24, 30-20 and improves UC's record to 13-7 on the year.
Nevitt led three UC players in double figure kills, as she hit .312 for the night and added five blocks. Jenny Custer turned in double-double number 12 of the year for her, as she finished with 12 kills and 10 digs, while hitting .391. Maria Pongonis added her team-best 15th double-double of the year with 10 kills and 14 digs.
The Bearcats' defense was the key to victory as UC held WSU under .200 hitting in all three games, including -.108 in game three. Melissa Zenz ran her streak of double figure dig matches to 20 with a match-high 23. The freshman libero also went over the 20-dig plateau for the 10th time.
"We will take a win anytime, it's always good to get a W," said Bearcat head coach Reed Sunahara. "I thought overall we played okay and our defense was really good. We dug a lot of balls that put us into transition for more kills."
After two early two scores, the Bearcats ran away from the Raiders in game one, leading by as much as 10. UC held a slim edge at 11-8 when the Bearcats ignited an 8-1 run to go up by 10 at 19-9. Wright State fought back to get within 22-16 and force a Bearcat timeout, but could never get its deficit under six. Leading by five at 28-23, the Bearcats used back-to-back kills by Custer and Erin Maldo to close out their game one victory.
The Bearcats raced to a 5-1 lead in game two, with a pair of early kills by Nevitt keying the start. Despite its early deficit, Wright State hung right with the Bearcats, trailing by two as late as 22-20. UC pulled away late, however and Pongonis' ninth kill put the finishing touches on the Bearcats' 30-24 win.
Cincinnati hit a match-low .146 in game three, but the -.108 performance by WSU was enough to give UC the win. Early on, the score featured four lead changes and five ties, with the last coming at nine-all. At that point, UC ripped off a 10-1 run to go up by nine at 19-10. The Bearcats took advantage of six WSU errors during the stretch and also got two kills from Custer and one by Pongonis. From there, the visitors could get no closer than eight and Custer's 12th kill gave Cincinnati its seventh straight win over the Raiders.
Wright State got six kills each from Sarah Poling and Alisha Kimbro and 12 digs from Jenny Schultz. Lizzy Gunn led all players with six blocks.
UC wraps up its four-match homestand with BIG EAST matches this weekend against West Virginia (Friday) and Pittsburgh (Sunday). Starting time for the matches is set for 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.