TicketsOct. 17, 2006
CINCINNATI, Ohio---Cincinnati tallied a season-high 15 aces and hit .356 en route to a three-game sweep of IUPUI on Tuesday night in Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats earned their 14th win of the year against five losses, with a 30-14, 30-20, 30-21 triumph.
Jenny Custer was the catalyst of the Bearcat serving attack, registering a career-high seven. UC's middle blocking duo of Myanna Hellsten and Jessie Nevitt each hit over .400 to spur the offense and finished with 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Nevitt tacked on six blocks to pace the defense.
A milestone was also reached on the night as Noel Olson passed Paige Pees for second on UC's career assists list. Olson ended the match with 43 assists, giving her 3,859 for her career.
"We wanted to get back on the winning track tonight and that's what we did," UC head coach Reed Sunahara stated. "I thought we had a good practice yesterday and it carried over to the match. Clearly, we were disappointed with losing to Louisville, but you are only as good as your last match. Tonight, we started good in the first game, but then hit a wall and weren't so good in the last two games."
The Bearcats came out firing on all cylinders, running to a 9-2 lead, two on aces, to force an early Jaguar stoppage. UC showed no signs of letting up, building its first double digit lead on a Katey Schroeder ace at 19-9. IUPUI would get as close as 20-12 on consecutive kills by Carol Newell and Devika Bellamy, but the hosts closed the game on a 10-2 run to take the 16-point win. The Bearcats finished game one hitting a robust .516 and holding IUPUI to .111.
Cincinnati led early in game two at 4-3, but with Newell serving, the Jaguars ripped off six consecutive points to take a 9-4 advantage. The Bearcats still trailed at 12-8 when Lauren Konopka dropped a kill, but the home team solved that problem with a 6-0 run to take a 14-12 advantage and force a timeout. UC used another run, this time of the 5-0 variety, to open a double-digit lead at 28-18. After a Bearcat service error, Nevitt and Jessica Elley sandwiched kills around one by Konopka to finish off the 30-20 win. Cincinnati hit just .188 and recorded only nine kills in the frame, but benefited from nine aces and three blocks in the victory.
Game three saw the Bearcats in front all the way as they hit .368 on its way to the 30-21 win. The score was tight throughout, with the home team going in front 15-10 on a Schroeder kill. IUPUI would answer, scoring seven of the next 10 to claw within one at 18-17. Cincinnati countered with three straight to force a Jaguar timeout, down by four. From there, UC built its lead to 29-21 and the Bearcats ended the night in appropriate fashion on Custer's seventh ace of the night.
IUPUI (7-16) got a near triple-double from Bellamy as she finished with eight kills, 24 assists and 11 digs. Konopka added eight kills, while Newell, the younger sister of former Bearcat Leslie Newell had four.
Custer turned in an all-around solid performance for UC, finishing with eight kills, seven aces, 10 digs and three blocks. Freshman Schroeder tacked on a career-high eight kills, while fellow frosh Jaime Frey led all players with 19 digs.
The Bearcats will be out to improve on their seventh-place standing in the BIG EAST on Friday, hosting Seton Hall. The match will get underway at 7:30 p.m.
Notes
- Series record: Cincinnati leads, 4-0.
- Junior Erin Maldo made her season-debut after recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. She finished the match with five digs.
- Noel Olson took over second place on UC's career assists list with 3,859. She now has eight more than Paige Pees (1988-91).
- Jenny Custer's seven aces were a career-high. She also passed the 100 plateau for her career, becoming only the 17th player in school history to do so.
- Katey Schroeder's eight kills were a career-best.