Today, the Bearcats volleyball team welcomed in SMU to Fifth Third Arena to finish off what has been a tremendous weekend for Bearcats sports. The Bearcats coming in to today are 7-4 overall (2-1 AAC). They welcome a SMU team that is 7-4 overall (3-0 AAC) and currently riding a four game winning streak for what should be a great matchup within the AAC.
The starters for the Bearcats today were Shannon Williams, Kailea Carrier, Emme Madden, Maria Mallon, Abby Walker, Maria Tobergte and Payton Frederick.
The Bearcats got the scoring started early with a big kills from Shannon Williams, followed by a service ace from libero Payton Fredrick. The Bearcats went on an early 3-0 run to take a 6-2 lead forcing SMU to take a timeout early in Set 1. The Bearcats kept their foot on the gas as they had a big time kill from Shannon Williams off a beautiful backset from setter Emme Madden, Williams was left with no block on the opposite side and hammered it home for the Bearcats to take a 12-8 lead. The Mustangs fought back as they managed to tie this set up at 16, before the Bearcats answered with a 6-0 run started with a kill from Norcom, followed by four service aces from Abby Walker. Walker, a freshman really gave the Mustangs some trouble with her dominant float serve as that run of four aces, in that 6 point span really opened this set up for the Bearcats. The Mustangs on the other hand weren’t going away as they rallied back to make it a 24-23 game before the Bearcats got a kill from Kailea Carrier to take Set 1 25-23.
The Bearcats got off to a rather slow start in Set 2 as they found themselves in a quick 5-1 deficit, but the Bearcats found their momentum to tie it up at 6. The rally started with a big time kill form Maria Mallon, followed up by a ace from Mallon again, then a huge block by Walker and the Bearcats were looking to flip all momentum here early in Set 2. the Mustangs went on a 5-0 run to open the lead 13-10 before extending the lead to 5, to take a 5 point lead over the Bearcats. The Bearcats rallied back with kills from Mallon and another ace by Frederick and they cut the Mustang lead to 2 trailing 16-14. The Bearcats however took a 3-0 run to tie this set at 19 before the Mustangs answered right back and tried to flip the momentum, but the Bearcats held tough to take a 22-21 lead after a kill by Alex Kwasnik and a mustang error the Bearcats were looking to finish this one out. The Bearcats held tough after a big kill from Mallon the set was tied up at 23. The Bearcats got a big kill from Tobergte, followed by great defense by libero Payton Frederick to force the Mustangs to make a huge attacking error to give the Bearcats a 25-23 win in set two, giving the Bearcats a 2 set to 0 lead.
