The Bearcats volleyball team traveled to Greenville, North Carolina to take on the East Carolina Pirates. The Bearcats are 8-4 to start the season, (3-1 AAC) are looking to keep the ball rolling as they have won 7 of their last 8 matches to start the season.
The Bearcats got off to a fast start to begin this match as the Bearcats jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after a early error from the pirates, followed by kills from Shannon Williams and Maria Mallon, the Bearcats found themselves in control of the set very early. The Pirates were forced to call an early timeout after the Bearcats jumped out to a 10-5 lead, looking to flip the momentum, but the Bearcats thought otherwise as they jumped out to a big 14-7 lead. The Pirates then found some momentum as they went on a 3- run to cut the deficit to 4, forcing coach Alvey to call a timeout to stop the Pirates run. The Pirates found their stride turning the page after the slow start, they rallied back making that 3 point swing to 5 and cutting the Bearcats early deficit to 2 when the Bearcats lead 15-13. The Pirates didn’t let the Bearcats keep that lead for long as they rallied back after a very slow start to tie this set up at 22-22. The Pirates jumped out and took a 24-22 lead before the freshman Emme Madden thought otherwise as she led the Bearcats on a 3-0 run to take the lead back after recording back to back service aces, providing the Bearcats some late momentum to hold on and take Set 1 28-26. The Bearcats ended Set 1 on a 3-0 run after trailing 26-25, a big boost of momentum late in the set propelled the Bearcats to take a nearly lead.
The Bearcats jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the Pirates fought back to tie the set at 2. The Bearcats followed with a big 3-0 run to take a 7-4 lead after kill by Mallon that Mallon, followed right back with a service ace. The Bearcats held a 8-7 lead before going on a quick 5 point swing that started with a Sarah Norcom kill, followed by yet, another service ace from Emme Madden, her 3rd of the match to take a 13-8 lead over the Pirates. The Bearcats kept their foot on the gas as they continued to find ways to put balls away late in the set. They went on a 5-0 run late in the set to lead 24-15 that started with a kill from Maria Mallon, followed by back to back kills from Adria Oliver. The Bearcats would wind up carrying that momentum on as they got a big kill from Sarah Norcom to take a 2 set to 0 lead over ECU after taking set 2, 25-16.
The Bearcats came out firing in Set 3 as they jumped out to a big 5-0 lead after Maria Tobergte got the scoring started after started off the set with a big service ace, followed by kills from Mallon and Williams. The Bearcats had an early 9-3 lead, but the Pirates cut the deficit to 5 before the Bearcats extended the lead to 9 at 14-5 following a few errors by the Pirates and a kill from Norcom. The Bearcats lead 17-7 before going on an other 5-0 run to take a 22-7 lead after kills by Mallon and Oliver. The Bearcats also had blocks by Mallon and Oliver during that 5-0 run. The Bearcat took Set 3 25-10 to win their 3rd consecutive match to kick off conference play.
Overall, the Bearcats just dominated the ECU Pirates, after a back and forth battle in Set 1, the Bearcats just found their momentum after a 3-0 run to take Set 1 28-26. The Pirates just couldn’t contain the Bearcats as they outplayed them after Set 1. The Bearcats had big performances from Abby Walker, who is coming off a week where she earned AAC Offensive Player of the Week after recording 25 kills, nine aces, totaling 40 points for the Bearcats, the freshman continued the great start to her Bearcat career as she led the match tonight with 10 kills, on 16 attempts, only forcing two errors, as she hit for a .500% throughout the match, as well as 3 blocks. The freshman from Cambridge, Ohio has been a dominant force for the Bearcats volleyball program here to start the season. The Pirates just couldn’t find a way to limit their mistakes, and the Bearcats took advantage of the opportunity. The Bearcats just dominated the Pirates as they filled the stat sheet in every category. The Bearcats took advantage of the Pirates 19 attacking errors, compared to the Pirates 24 team kills, this was a huge factor as the Pirates simply were struggling keeping the ball in play, but it also gives a testament to how good the Bearcats defense was playing as they held the Pirates to 24 kills on the match. The Bearcats continued to dominate on in the serving game as they rallied off another seven service aces as they are coming off a weekend series where they had 22 service aces in two games which is very good, to add seven more tonight shows that the Bearcats are going to give a lot of teams trouble down the stretch of the season.
