Cincinnati- This evening the Bearcats (1-7) welcomed in state rival Miami (OH) (5-5) to Fifth Third Arena as the Bearcats kick off a weekend of local volleyball here in the Tri-State, where they will travel right down to the road tomorrow to the Cintas Center to take on the Xavier Musketeers in their final non-conference game of the season. The RedHawks are coming off a hard fought five set battle versus the Musketeers last night where they fell 3 sets to 2, despite winning the first two sets.
“I think it is an awesome opportunity, I think we are very excited to go out and compete with schools that are very close, I think it makes it more of a rivalry for not just Xavier, but Miami as well since were all from Ohio. I think we are all excited to get out there and leave it all on the floor,” said sophomore setter Emme Madden.
Despite coming into this match up 1-7 on the season, the Bearcats have played some dominant volleyball to start the season, as six of their first seven matches were against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago. Four of those respected teams were preseason favorites to win their conference in the likes of Dayton, Illinois State, Pittsburgh and BYU. The Bearcats went to five sets with two of those teams including No. 10 ranked Pittsburgh, before having to turn right around a couple hours later and take on a very dominant BYU team where they fell in four sets to the No. 7th team in the country. The Bearcats saw a lot of positive things versus those top tier programs, including Abby Walker recording a game high 23 kills versus a Top 10 team in the country, as the sophomore middle clocker continues to show why she is one of the best players within the American Athletic Conference.
Starters for the Bearcats- Payton Frederick, Caroline Endres, Abby Walker, Kailea Carrier- Avry Tatum, Maria Tobergte, Shaye Eggleston.
Starters for the Redhawks- Hayden Hicks, Brooke Jackson, Maggie McCrary, Elle Hanson, Gentry Warrick, Emily Morgan, Allyson Severance.
Set 1- The Bearcats would strike first after a RedHawk service error, followed by an attacking error would give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead over the RedHawks to start. The RedHawks would get settled in rather quickly though after Hayden Hicks got the rally started with a kill, where she followed with a service ace, and Elle Hanson Kill, that would give the RedHawks a 5-3 lead over the Bearcats after a 3-point run, would spark some momentum for the RedHawks as they outscored the Bearcats 7-2 since the start of that run to take a 9-6 lead. The Bearcats would find themselves some momentum after three straight blocks from Kailea Carrier sparked the crowd, after trailing 12-6, the Bearcats had the RedHawks on their toes as the they would run a 7-1 run to take a 14-13 lead, and in a sport of runs the Bearcats were looking to capitalize on the momentum, as Miami was having a hard time getting anything going offensively behind the dominating net play from Kailea Carrier, Avry Tatum, and Abby Walker. The Bearcats would hold on and complete the comeback as they would take Set 1, 25-19 behind a dominant performance at the net between Carrier and Tatum as they combined for four blocks, including three in the row from Carrier, and the Bearcats wouldn’t look back from there. Tatum led the way with four kills for the Bearcats during Set 1.
