TicketsOct. 8, 2009
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: After a brief return home last weekend, Cincinnati begins a four-match road swing this weekend with matches at Notre Dame and DePaul. The Bearcats and the Irish meet on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m. EDT in a match-up of the two remaining conference unbeatens. Following Saturday's match, UC heads to Chicago on Sunday, Oct. 11 for a 3 p.m. EDT match against DePaul.
ABOUT THE IRISH: Notre Dame enters the weekend with a 9-4 overall record and a 3-0 BIG EAST mark. The Irish currently are receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll and Notre Dame has registered wins this season over Stanford and Wisconsin to name a few. Serenity Phillips leads the team with 3.52 kps, and is one of four players averaging over 2.00 kps. The Irish are an extremely well-balanced team ranking in the Top 6 in the conference in five of seven statistical categories.
THE SERIES WITH NOTRE DAME: Saturday is the 11th meeting between Notre Dame and Cincinnati with the Irish owning an 8-2 lead in the all-time series. Cincinnati won last year's meeting, 3-1, in Fifth Third Arena, but UC is winless when playing at Notre Dame (0-3).
ABOUT THE BLUE DEMONS: DePaul comes into the weekend with a 6-11 record, but the Blue Demons have dropped six consecutive matches. Sarah Cullen leads the team in kills and digs, averaging 3.26 kps and 3.08 dps, respectively. This season, DePaul is 2-6 when playing at home.
THE SERIES WITH DEPAUL: Sunday marks the 41st meeting between UC and DePaul. Cincinnati owns a 25-15 lead in the all-time series and the Bearcats have won seven straight meetings over the Blue Demons.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Following a weekend where she averaged 12.43 assists per set, junior Annie Fesl upped her season assists average to 11.79 aps, moving her from 12th to seventh nationally in that category. Fellow junior Stephanie Niemer also ranks in the Top 10 nationally in points and kills. Niemer's 5.35 points per set ranks sixth nationally, while her 4.69 kills per set ranks eighth in the country.
CLEAN SWEEP: UC made a clean sweep of the BIG EAST Conference weekly awards as junior Stephanie Niemer and freshman Megan Turner were named BIG EAST Volleyball Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week, respectively, on Monday, Oct. 5. The duo helped the Bearcats extend their home winning streak to 22 matches and improve to 3-0 in conference action after a four-set win over Pittsburgh and a sweep of West Virginia last weekend. In matches against Dayton, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia, Niemer averaged 4.36 kps, 3.04 dps, and 0.45 bps. Niemer posted back-to-back kill-dig double-doubles with 22 kills and 13 digs at Dayton on Tuesday, Sept. 29, before coming back with 19 kills and 14 digs versus Pittsburgh. In addition to her double-double against the Panthers, Niemer collected a season-high five service aces which moved her into 10th place on Cincinnati's career service aces chart. Turner continued her stellar play with three consecutive double-figure kill performances during the week. She started the week with 10 kills and eight digs at Dayton, before recording 12 kills against Pittsburgh and 10 versus West Virginia. In conference play this past weekend, Turner hit .381 (22-6-42) to lead all UC players.
UC STREAKS: With a four-set win over Pittsburgh and a three-set sweep over West Virginia Oct. 3-4, Cincinnati continued its strong play at home. UC is 6-0 at home this season and it has won 22 consecutive matches in Fifth Third Arena. Its last home loss was on Oct. 7, 2007 to No. 18 St. John's. Besides their home winning streak, Cincinnati also has an impressive conference regular-season winning streak. After dropping its first two conference matches to Connecticut and St. John's in 2008, UC rallied off 12 conference wins to finish last season with a 12-2 league mark before starting 3-0 this season. The 15-match conference winning streak is the longest in program history.
CAREER NUMBERS: All six of UC's returners from last year have seen action against Notre Dame and DePaul at some point in their careers. Junior Lindsay Upton owns the top hitting percentages against both teams among all of UC's returners with a career .292 hitting percentage (22-8-48) against Notre Dame and a .286 (15-5-35) clip against DePaul. Defensively, junior Annie Fesl averages 0.92 blocks and 11.33 aps in six career sets against the Irish, while Upton averages 1.67 bps in her career against DePaul. Senior Jaime Frey averages 5.65 dps against Notre Dame and 5.22 dps against DePaul.
TOP 10: On Sept. 15, against Western Kentucky, junior Stephanie Niemer became the 15th player to accumulate 1,000 career kills and soon following, she moved into 10th place on UC's career kills chart. A few weeks later on Oct. 3, Niemer notched five service aces in a four-set win over Pittsburgh, moving her into 10th place on Cincinnati's career service aces chart. Niemer moved past Tina Durbin (1984-88), who had 123 career aces. The Erlanger, Ky., native currently has 125 aces.
X-FACTOR: One of the keys to success for Cincinnati this season has been its serving. In wins, UC is averaging 1.62 service aces per set compared to just 0.76 sa/s in losses. In seven of its 12 wins, Cincinnati has collected at least five service aces, while the Bearcats have tallied fewer than five service aces in five of its seven losses. In wins, junior Stephanie Niemer and sophomore Missy Harpenau have combined for 41 of the team's 68 service aces.
FOLLOW UC VOLLEYBALL AND HEAD COACH Reed Sunahara ON TWITTER/FACEBOOK: Fans can follow the Cincinnati volleyball team and head coach Reed Sunahara on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Cincinnativball and www.twitter.com/ReedSunahara. Fans can also become a fan of the University of Cincinnati volleyball page on Facebook.