TicketsCINCINNATI — Cincinnati volleyball fell to Iowa State, 3-1, on Sunday at Fifth Third Arena, dropping the match after taking the third set. The Bearcats dropped to 8-7 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play, while Iowa State improved to 11-6 and 5-1. Iowa State won the match 25-17, 25-18, 17-25, 25-20.
Sydney Nolan led Cincinnati with 10 kills, while Nina Scrucca added nine kills and three block assists. Andrea Simovski finished with seven kills and 11 digs, and Ligia Williams had five kills while hitting .333, plus four blocks, three of them solo. Kate Lijic paced the Bearcats with 22 assists in three sets and Viktoria Ninova added 15 digs and three service aces.
Iowa State was led by Mesaiya Bettis’ 14 kills and Nayeli Ti’a’s 13. Daaliyah Kemp hit .538 with seven kills and no errors. The Cyclones' impressive libero Rachel Van Gorp posted 21 digs.
Cincinnati hit .175 with 39 kills, compared with Iowa State’s .184 on 51 kills. The Bearcats had more digs (60-59) and more blocks (9-7) and committed fewer attack errors (17-23).
Cincinnati led by as many as four in the second set, at 8-4, and held a 12-9 edge. Iowa State then scored six straight points to go ahead for good at 15-12. The Bearcats trailed 21-15 and rallied with three straight points to make it 21-18, but the Cyclones finished on a 4-0 run.
The Bearcats took the third set behind a .478 attack percentage, with 13 kills and two errors on 23 swings. Scrucca had five kills and Nolan added three, while Lijic had 11 assists and two kills on two swings. After the teams were tied at 8-8, the Bearcats went ahead for good and built the lead to 17-12, then to 20-14 on a Ninova ace. A Nolan ace made it 24-16, and Scrucca ended the set with a kill.
Iowa State led 9-3 in the fourth set, and Cincinnati fought back with four straight points to get within 9-7. The Bearcats stayed within reach and pulled to 19-18 on an Lilian Entenmann kill, but the Cyclones closed the match on a 6-2 run. Nolan had three kills in the set, and Williams had two kills while hitting .400.
// UP NEXT
Cincinnati hits the road to take on West Virginia in Morgantown on Friday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. inside WVU Coliseum.
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