TicketsNov. 8, 2012
Match Notes | |
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati volleyball team will close its BIG EAST regular-season schedule this weekend with a pair of road matches. The Bearcats will play at Notre Dame on Fri., Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. and will travel to No. 11 Louisville on Sun., Nov. 11 at noon.
The Bearcats are looking to avenge two prior losses to the Irish and the Cardinals earlier this season. UC dropped a five-set match to ND on Sept. 21 before falling 3-0 to then-No. 13 Louisville on Oct. 28 in a match televised nationally on ESPNU. Both were played at Fifth Third Arena.
The Bearcats enter the weekend with an 11-16 record and a 9-4 mark in BIG EAST play. UC swept Georgetown and Villanova last weekend to officially clinch a spot in the BIG EAST Championship. The tournament will be played Nov. 16-18 in Milwaukee, Wis., on the campus of Marquette University.
It is the eighth consecutive trip to the conference tournament for Cincinnati, who is one of only three teams to qualify every year since 2005 (when it joined the BIG EAST). The Bearcats will be searching for their fourth straight trip to the BIG EAST Championship match. They won their first conference tournament title in 2011 and also have runner-up titles from 2009 and 2010.
NOTRE DAME SERIES
The Bearcats are 6-10 against the Irish all-time. The teams last met in Fifth Third Arena on Sept. 21 when Cincinnati dropped a five-set heartbreaker to the Notre Dame. The teams' last meeting in 2011 was in the title match of the BIG EAST Championship in Milwaukee, Wis. The Bearcats finished with a 3-0 victory to earn their first BIG EAST Championship title.
ABOUT THE FIGHTING IRISH
Notre Dame is 19-6 on the season with a 12-1 BIG EAST record. The Irish have won 10 consecutive matches and currently sit atop the BIG EAST standings, tied with Louisville and Marquette. Toni Alugbue leads the Irish with 3.59 kills/set and Maggie Brindock averages 9.66 assists/set. Defensively, Notre Dame is led by reigning BIG EAST Freshman of the Week Taylor Morey who is recording 4.29 digs/set. Andie Olsen paces the team with 1.04 blocks/set. In BIG EAST matches, the Irish rank second with a .285 hitting percentage, third with 14.00 kills/set and first with 3.06 blocks/set.
LOUISVILLE SERIES
Cincinnati is 17-34 against its longtime rivals from the south. Since the two teams joined the BIG EAST in 2005, the Bearcats are 2-8 against the Cardinals, including a 3-1 loss in the title match of the 2009 BIG EAST Championship. UC has lost the last five matches and has not won since a sweep of UofL on Oct. 23, 2009 at Fifth Third Arena. In the last meeting between the two teams, Louisville recorded a 3-0 victory on Oct. 28, 2012 at Fifth Third Arena in a match nationally televised on ESPNU.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
No. 11 Louisville is 23-3 on the season and currently sits tied atop the BIG EAST standings with Notre Dame and Marquette after all have notched a 12-1 record. In BIG EAST matches, the Cardinals lead the conference in assists (13.61/set) and kills (14.33/set) while ranking third in hitting percentage (.265), third in blocks (2.45/set) and second in digs (17.43/set). UofL is led by Lola Arslanbekova, the 2011 BIG EAST Player of the Year and the 2012 preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year. The senior, a four-time BIG EAST Player of the Week recipient, leads the conference and ranks third in the NCAA with 5.26 kills/set in conference play. Senior Gwen Rucker leads the team with a .373 hitting percentage and is second in the BIG EAST with 1.26 blocks/game.
Story Lines:
- Senior Jordanne Scott has recorded double-digit kills in all but three matches this season. Overall, Scott has hit in double digits in 40 of the last 43 matches, dating back to Oct. 18, 2011 vs. Western Kentucky. Scott's season-high kills for the 2012 season is 24 (one shy of her career-high) tallied on Sept. 23 against DePaul.
- In BIG EAST matches, Cincinnati ranks fifth with a .238 hitting percentage, fourth with 12.92 assists/set, fourth with 13.82 kills/set and sixth with 16.29 digs/set.
- In BIG EAST matches, Emily Hayden ranks seventh with a .352 hitting percentage. Jordanne Scott ranks second with 4.39 kills/set, Rachel Rohlfs ranks fourth with 10.65 assists/set, Me'Ashah Nicholson ranks 10th with 1.02 blocks/set and Emily MacIntyre ranks second with 6.06 digs/set.
- Four current players are ranked among the program's elite in nine different career statistical categories. Senior Emily Hayden is sixth in career hitting percentage with a .308 mark. Junior Emily MacIntyre sits at second in the record book with a 4.26 career digs per set clip and ranks third with 1,531 career digs. She also is on track to break the record for digs/set in a season with 5.38 and will currently rank third with 538 digs in 2012. Senior Becca Refenes is currently in sixth with 406 block assists. She also has 462 career blocks to put her at ninth. Refenes has played in 136 matches to rank 10th and 479 career sets to rank her fifth. Senior Jordanne Scott has recorded 1,570 career kills to rank her fifth in program history. She also ranks 10th with 3,547 total attempts and ninth with 338 block assists. Scott has played in 136 matches to rank fifth and 484 sets to rank ninth.
- Scott was named to the BIG EAST honor roll on Nov. 5 for her efforts in a 2-1 week for the Bearcats.
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