TicketsAug. 31, 2010
By Shawn Sell
GoBEARCATS.com
A staple of UC Volleyball's success in recent years has been the teams near dominance at home and the squad's play in the annual Bearcat Invitational has done nothing to hurt that standard. Since its inception in 2003, the Bearcats have won the tournament title every year except one and boast a staggering 20-1 record in tournament action.
While the amount of work that goes into hosting a tournament is high for head coach Reed Sunahara and his staff, UC's 11th year leader sees only an upside in bringing multiple teams to Fifth Third Arena one weekend early in each season.
"It is always good to play at home and this gives us the chance to show what we have at Cincinnati," he says. "We feel like we have great facilities and this gives us an opportunity to showcase the University. The more people that we can get on campus and expose them to what we have, the better."
Each season, Sunahara works to fill the tournament field with challenging opponents that will test his team. In 2006, the event featured national powerhouse UCLA, Sunahara's alma mater. To this point, the Bruins, ranked eighth in the nation at the time are the only team to beat the Bearcats in their home tournament. Other strong programs such as Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marshall, New Mexico State and Southern Miss have dotted the tournament line-up over the years. But how does Sunahara go about deciding who to invite to join the field?
"We want the best teams possible to come," he says. "We try to get as many good teams as we can. Sometimes it's a home-and-home situation; like next year we have South Carolina is coming in and in 2012 we go to South Carolina. There are a lot of factors involved, but for the most part relationships we have with other coaches is a big one."
Finding teams to compete in the 2010 Bearcats Invitational presented by Fifth Third Bank was a bit easier as the field will have a strong family connection. A pair of sophomores on the UC roster, Emily Hayden and Megan Turner, will see a familiar face on the other side of the net during matches this weekend. Hayden's older sister Sara is a middle blocker for Murray State, while Turner's sister Kelly is a junior middle blocker for James Madison.
"This year was unique because we have two teams coming that have players who are sisters of two of our current players," Sunahara says. "So that was something that we wanted to do to have them come and play against their sisters."
When UC takes the floor for its invitational this weekend, they will be looking to build on a pair of impressive statistics, in addition to the 20-1 match record in tournament play. On the road to 20 victories in the event's history, the Bearcats have won an astounding 61 of 70 sets played. In addition, Sunahara's charges will be out to build on a 28-match home court winning streak, the second-longest active streak in the nation.
"We have been fortunate over the years to have some success at home," Sunahara says. "Hopefully we can continue to build on that this weekend."
The first two matches of the eighth annual Bearcats Invitational will take place on Friday night with James Madison and Murray State squaring off at 5 p.m. UC takes the court at 7:30 p.m. against in-state foe Kent State in the nightcap. A full day of action is set for Saturday with play getting underway at 10 a.m. The Bearcats will be in action at 12:30 p.m. (vs. James Madison) and again at 7:30 p.m. (vs. Murray State) on day two of the tournament.