TicketsAug. 31, 2007
ORONO, Maine--Cincinnati just missed a scoring defense record and a balanced offense hit .374 as the Bearcats rolled to their fifth straight win, sweeping Maine on Friday night at Memorial Gym in a match that was part of the Maine Invitational. The 30-17, 30-14, 30-16 record hands UC its fifth consecutive victory to open the 2007 season.
The Bearcats were firing on all cylinders both offensive and defensively, matching their season-best hitting performance and limiting the Black Bears (0-6) to a .021 final hitting mark. UC totaled 10 team blocks for the evening, matching its season-high. The defense surrendered just 47 points for the evening, only one point higher than the school record for a three-game match, first established in 2002 and then matched in 2005.
The offense got contributions from many sources as no player finished with more than nine kills and six players had at least four. Jessica Elley, Jessie Nevitt and Stephanie Niemer dropped nine apiece to help setter Annie Fesl to 37 assists for the evening.
"We were able to got lots of players in there tonight and the bench did a good job," UC head coach Reed Sunahara said. "With one win under our belts this weekend, hopefully we can carry this momentum into tomorrow's match against TCU. We got a chance to see their match earlier against Maine and they are a good team. It will definitely be a test for us."
Game number one saw UC with its lowest hitting frame of the match (.256) and Maine's highest (.167), but the Bearcats used a pair of big runs to grab the 30-17 win. Trailing early at 2-1, Cincinnati scored five straight, three coming courtesy of Nevitt to take a 6-2 advantage. As Maine clawed back later to get within 15-13, the Bearcats turned it on again, using four kills by Elley to highlight a 9-0 surge that put the visitors in front by double digits. UC closed the game with five of the last eight points to go up one game to none.
A 6-0 run in the early stages of game two set the pace for a big 30-14 victory. Again trailing 2-1, UC scored six straight, three on Jenny Custer kills to assume the lead for good. A 5-0 spurt later pushed the Bearcat lead to 15-8 and seven straight Cincinnati points late in the going gave Maine an insurmountable 26-13 deficit. Lindsay Upton helped the Bearcats close out the game, combining with Niemer for one block and Fesl for another to seal the win. Maine fell into the negatives in hitting for the frame at -.097, while the Bearcats surged to .407.
Cincinnati saved its best offense for last as it hit a match-best .485 in a 30-16 runaway. Maine would lead for much of the early stages, with the final Bears' lead showing at 12-11. A Lindsey Peterson kill started an 11-1 Cincinnati run that hoisted them into a 21-13 lead. Later, Niemer dropped a kill to start a match-closing 7-0 run. The Bearcats' freshmen trio came up large in the late run as Niemer had three kills, Upton contributed two and a block and Fesl passed out five assists and combined with Upton for a match-closing block. Maine hit .000 in the finale.
Jaime Frey led all players with 13 digs, while Nevitt had a match-best five blocks. Fesl and Upton tacked on four blocks apiece to set career-highs for each.
Megan Smith led Maine with five kills, while Ashlee Wright had nine digs. The Black Bears slip to 0-6 with the defeat.
The Bearcats will go after their second tournament title of the year on Saturday morning, battling TCU at 10 a.m. The Horned Frogs were victorious over the Bears, 3-0, in the opening match-up of the tournament earlier on Friday.