TicketsNov. 20, 2010
PITTSBURGH - The No. 18-ranked University of Cincinnati volleyball team advanced to the BIG EAST Championship match on Sunday by defeating the University of Notre Dame in three sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-19) on Saturday, Nov. 20, at Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh, Pa.
UC (28-4, 13-1 BIG EAST) shot a .350 attack percentage as a team and had three players with double-digit kills, with senior outside hitter Stephanie Niemer (Erlanger, Ky./St. Henry) leading with a team-high 15. Sophomore middle blockers Becca Refenes (Westland, Mich./Lutheran Westland) and Jordanne Scott (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North) smacked 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Senior setter Annie Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) dished out 40 assists, while adding four kills and four digs. Junior outside hitter Missy Harpenau (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mother of Mercy) dug a team-high 15 Notre Dame attack attempts, followed by freshmen libero Emily MacIntrye's (Muncie, Ind./Yorktown) 12 digs and junior defensive specialist Karen Onuki's (Troy, Ohio/Troy) seven.
The first set was hotly contested between the Bearcats and the Irish. With the score tied 4-4, Notre Dame went on a 4-1 run to take an 8-5 lead before UC fought back to tie the score at 10. The rest of the set featured ties at every score up until the 23rd points. UC scored the final three points of the set on kills by Harpenau, Scott and Niemer.
Niemer led the Bearcats with seven kills in the first, followed by Refenes' three. Fesl passed out 13 assists to direct a Bearcat attack that shot a .275 attack percentage in the set. Defensively, UC dug 16 Notre Dame attack attempts, led by Hapenau's four, and recorded two team blocks.
With the score tied 6-6 in the second set, Cincinnati went on a 3-0 run, causing Notre Dame to call a timeout. The Bearcats built a 12-8 lead before UND went on a 3-0 run of its own and kept within striking distance throughout the set. Back-to-back kills and an assist to Fesl by Niemer increased UC's lead to 22-18. Another 3-0 Notre Dame run closed the gap to 23-21 before Niemer hit another pair of consecutive kills to give UC a 25-22 set win, as well as a 2-0 match lead.
Niemer pounded six kills in the second set to lead UC, followed by four from Fesl, who also had 11 assists, and four from Scott. UC shot a .333 attack clip in the second, while holding ND to a .277 rate, dug 20 balls and had three team blocks.
Cincinnati started the third set by taking a 5-1 lead. Notre Dame went on a 3-0 run to bring the score to 5-4 and went on to take a 12-9 lead. With the score 13-11, Cincinnati went on a 4-0 run that featured two kills by Niemer and one each from Scott and Refenes to give the Bearcats a 15-13 lead and causing UND to call a timeout. UC went on another 4-0 run that increased its lead to 19-14 before the Irish again used a timeout. After both teams swapped 2-0 runs, the Bearcats finished off Notre Dame with Niemer's 15th kill of the match, taking the third set 25-19.
With the win, No. 1 seed Cincinnati advances to the final of the BIG EAST Championship on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 3:30 p.m. The Bearcats will play the winner of Saturday's second semifinal match featuring No. 2 seed Louisville and No. 3 seed Marquette. Sunday's championship match will be aired live on ESPNU.