TicketsNov. 16, 2012
MILWAUKEE - Senior Jordanne Scott (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North) hit a career-high 30 kills as the University of Cincinnati volleyball team beat the University of Connecticut 3-2 (25-21, 17-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-8) in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship in Milwaukee, Wis. Scott's 30 kills were one away from the BIG EAST Championship record and puts her tied at second place in the conference tournament record book.
Scott, who was named to the All-BIG EAST First Team, added 10 digs to her record-breaking kills number for her fourth consecutive double-double. All-BIG EAST Second Team member junior Emily MacIntyre (Muncie, Ind./Yorktown) celebrated her birthday with a match-high 21 digs while senior Megan Turner (Ontario, N.Y./Wayne Central) added 14 kills. Senior Rachel Rohlfs (Cincinnati, Ohio/Grand Valley State) and sophomore Madison Lang (Bloomfield, Mich./Florida Atlantic) split time at setter, recording 36 and 19 assists, respectively.
Cincinnati (12-18) recorded a season-high 10 service aces to pace the offensive effort. The Bearcats hit 62 kills with a .333 attacking percentage and had 52 digs and five blocks on the defensive side of the net.
Connecticut (19-12) had 56 kills and a .263 hitting clip. The Huskies also had 54 assists, 57 digs and four blocks.
The Bearcats began the match with a 25-21 win in the first game to take a 1-0 match lead. With the game tied at 7-7, UC went on a five-point run to take a 12-7 lead. The Bearcats got three kills from Scott, Turner and senior Emily Hayden (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) and a Refenes ace during the run. Cincinnati extended the lead to 24-17 on a Hayden kill, but Connecticut rallied with four consecutive points to climb to within 24-21. After head coach Molly Alvey called a timeout, the Bearcats responded strong and a kill by Scott ended the set with the 25-21 tally. Scott had eight kills in the game and the Bearcats got 11 assists from Rohlfs.
Connecticut tied the score in the second game with a 25-17 win. The scoring went back and forth until the Huskies put together an 11-2 scoring run that included four kills, three service aces and four UC errors. The Bearcats ended the run with a three-point run of their own, but it would not be enough to stop UConn's momentum. Connecticut used a Cincinnati serving error to go ahead 24-16 and got a kill by Immanuella Anagu to end the game 25-17.
Cincinnati showed its resilience in the third game, coming back from three points down late in the set to win 25-20. The Huskies went ahead 6-5 before Cincinnati employed a four-point run to take a 9-6 lead and force a UConn timeout. Turner recorded a kill and senior Becca Refenes (Westland, Mich./Lutheran Westland) had a kill and two service aces during the run for the Bearcats. Connecticut climbed back into the game to take an 18-15, but Cincinnati would not back down. It used a 9-1 rally, including three aces, two blocks and two kills, to get to set point at 24-19. A point later, Scott used her 20th kill of the match to end the game 25-20. The Bearcats took a 2-1 lead into the fourth game.
Connecticut got a point back in the fourth game with a 25-23 victory. The Huskies went ahead 14-10 on a kill by Mattison Quayle and kept the lead at 16-13 before Cincinnati answered with a kill by Scott and a kill and an ace by Turner to take a 17-16 lead. It pushed the lead to 21-18 on a kill by Scott, but UConn scored four straight points to take a 22-21 advantage. Scott's 28th kill tied the game at 22-22, but UConn connected on two more kills to serve for set point at 24-22. A service error gave a point to UC, but a Cincinnati attacking error gave the Huskies the 25-23 victory. During the game, Scott surpassed her previous career-high of 25 kills and finished the game with 28.
In the deciding fifth game, Connecticut jumped out to an early 4-1 lead following a kill, a service ace and two UC errors. The Bearcats clawed their way back with four straight points to take a 7-6 lead. A three-point run by Cincinnati put the Bearcats ahead 11-7 and forced UConn into a timeout. With an 11-8 lead, UC closed out the match with four consecutive points to win 15-8 and wrap up a first round BIG EAST victory.
The win marks the fourth straight appearance for the Bearcats in the BIG EAST semifinal round. Cincinnati is looking to defend its 2011 BIG EAST Championship title.
The Bearcats will advance to the semifinal round on Sat., Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET to play the winner of No. 1 seed Louisville and No. 8 seed St. John's. The match will be streamed live on the BIG EAST Championship Central page at www.bigeast.org.
-GoBEARCATS.com-