TicketsApril 21, 2010
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati volleyball team wraps up its final week of spring volleyball when it hosts the Cincinnati Volleyball Spring Tournament on Saturday, April 24. The tournament will take place on the first-floor practice gym in the Richard E. Lindner Center on the UC campus.
UC, which is coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, lost just one player from last year's squad and has 10 returners active in the spring season.
In its first weekend of action, the Bearcats practiced against Ohio University and Indiana University in preparation for the KIVA Collegiate Spring Tournament in Louisville, Ky.
At the KIVA Tournament on Saturday, April 10, UC dropped all three of its best-of-three sets matches to Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky, and Missouri. Despite the three losses, with so many returning players UC has had the opportunity to put players in different positions and put together different game plans in preparation for the upcoming 2010 season.
On April 17, at the Dayton Spring Tournament, Cincinnati went 2-1 for the tournament with wins over Dayton and the Dayton Alumni Team. After dropping the first set to Dayton, 26-24, UC rallied for a 26-24 win of its own in the second set, before winning the sprint to 15 points, 15-13. Then Cincinnati downed the Dayton Alumni in two sets, before falling to Ohio University.
"We have been striving for consistency all spring and after this weekend, I think we are one step closer to our goal," said assistant coach Erin Virtue. "Overall I thought that we played very steady this weekend. Our passing was impressive throughout the first two matches."
The Cincinnati Volleyball Spring Tournament features eight teams that will be split into two pools with each team playing against the other three teams from their pool and one team from the other pool. The teams competing at Cincinnati's Spring Tournament in addition to UC are Maryland, Northwestern, Cleveland State, Xavier, Morehead State, Ohio State, and Kent State.
Cincinnati Volleyball Spring Tournament Schedule:
Pool #1
9 a.m. Cincinnati vs. Northwestern
10 a.m. Maryland vs. Cleveland State
11 a.m. Cincinnati vs. Cleveland State
Noon Maryland vs. Northwestern
1 p.m. Northwestern vs. Cleveland State
2 p.m. Cincinnati vs. Maryland
3 p.m. Cleveland State vs. Kent State
4 p.m. Cincinnati vs. Xavier
Pool #2
9 a.m. Xavier vs. Ohio State
10 a.m. Morehead vs. Kent State
11 a.m. Xavier vs. Kent State
Noon Morehead State vs. Ohio State
1 p.m. Ohio State vs. Kent State
2 p.m. Xavier vs. Morehead State
3 p.m. Morehead State vs. Northwestern
4 p.m. Maryland vs. Ohio State