Today the Bearcats Woman’s Volleyball team looked to complete the series sweep versus crosstown rival Xavier. The Bearcats took Match 1 of the Series in a three set to one victory Friday night at the Cintas Center. The Bearcats were without middle blocker/right side hitter Kailea Carrier for Game 2 of the series after a big performance in the first match of the series.
Set One- The Bearcats started out slow as they got themselves in a hole early as the Musketeers got off to a quick 10-0 run after a 2-2 score to tie the game. That opened the door for the Musketeers early on as they led 13-3 after the Bearcats ended the run. The Musketeers also rallied off a 5-0 run late in Set One right as the bearcats started finding their groove. The Musketeers were up as many as 14 in Set One. The Bearcats seemed to have a hard time getting in their groove early on as the Bearcats got into a big hole early on and couldn’t come out of that hole. The Bearcats hit -.037 in Set One on offense compared to the Musketeers .319%. The Musketeers were keeping the ball in play and finding their spots in the Bearcats defense. Xavier had those two massive runs allotting for 15/25 points in Set One. The Bearcats just couldn’t find the a way to end their run and start their own in Set One.
Set Two- In Set Two the Bearcats flipped the switch from Set One as they started to find their groove. The Bearcats were neck and neck with Xavier early in Set Two. Xavier went on a run to extend the lead 13-9 before the Bearcats called a timeout to try to flip the momentum to their side and it worked as they Bearcats had a side out to bring some energy. The Bearcats didn’t find themselves in a massive hole in set too like they did in Set One. They were fighting till the end, but Xavier took the set 25-20.
Set Three- The Bearcats started to find their momentum as it was neck and neck the whole set. The play started when the Bearcats trailed 13-12 when Xavier handed Adria Oliver a beautiful overpass and she put the ball down for a kill. The Bearcats then went on a 3-0 scoring run to take the lead in Set Three before Xavier answered with a rally of their own to tie the game at 19. The Bearcats went to the hot hand at 22-22 and ran a beautiful designed push one play to Adria Oliver in the middle for the kill. The Set was tied at 24-24 before freshman outside hitter Sarah Norcom ripped a beautiful line shot that wrecked Xavier’s setter to put the Bearcats up 25-24. The freshman followed that kill up with a beautiful cross court kill that dropped right in the corner of zone four. The Bearcats were looking to extend this match as they took Set Three, 26-24.
Set Four- The Bearcats carried the momentum over early in Set Four as they continued to feed the freshman Sarah Norcom as she started off the set with two massive kills. The Musketeers answered quickly though, as they sprung out a 4-0 run to take the lead 9-7 before the Bearcats called a timeout to try to end the run. Xavier turned this into a 6-0 run before a kill by Sarah Norcom. The Bearcats started a run of their own to bring the game to 15-14 behind two kills from Sarah Norcom. Xavier jumped on the gas and went for another 5-0 run after right side Lauren Hanion recorded two very big blocks on the bearcat outside Sarah Norcom. The Bearcats cut the lead to two at one point late in the set, before Xavier started another run to extend the match to 24-18. The Bearcats ended up falling in set for by a final score of 25-20.
The Bearcats fell just short to crosstown rival Xavier to split the series 1-1. The Bearcats were struggling to find their groove early on in todays match versus Xavier. The Bearcats were without middle blocker/ right side Kailea Carrier for today’s contest. Carrier played a huge role in the first match of the series recording 13 kills on 28 attempts for a hitting percentage of .429%. The Bearcats found themselves in a slow start as Xavier rallied off a 10-0 run early in set one after a quick 2-2 start to jump ahead 12-2. The Musketeers also ran off a 5-0 run later in the first set. 15 of the Musketeers 25 points in Set One were unanswered. Volleyball is a game of runs and once you find a way to get on those runs you never know what can transpire. That 10-0 run was a very big hole the Bearcats had to play from behind and was difficult to overcome. The Bearcats found some momentum in the second set but Xavier had answers for it. The Musketeers had a 2 set to 0 lead heading into the 3rd set. The Bearcats came back to winning Set Three. The Bearcats started finding their shots behind Adria Oliver, Madison Waters and Sarah Norcom. The momentum started at 22-22 when Xavier left an overpass hanging for middle Adria Oliver once again leading to a kill to go ahead 23-22. The Musketeers tied it up at 24-24 before the freshman outside Sarah Norcom put down two straight kills for the Bearcats to win Set Three, 26-24. The Bearcats fell just short in Game 2 of the series today, falling in four sets. The big factor of the game today was the play at the net. The Bearcats hit just .126% on the match compared to Xavier’s .319%. The Bearcats also had 34 attacking errors compared to Xavier’s 10, The Musketeers dominated the net as the out blocked the Bearcats by 15, totaling 16 blocks compared to the Bearcats one. The Musketeers flipped the switch from Game 1 as these stats were flipped, but that’s the sport of volleyball. The Bearcats had another night of four players with 10 or more kills. Freshman outside Sarah Norcom led the match in kills with 13, she also recorded seven digs. Outside Madison Waters also recorded had 12 kills with eight digs. Middle Adria Oliver recorded 11 kills with the Bearcats only block of the match. Setter/right side hitter Shannon Williams stepped in today as she came off the bench to tally 10 kills as well. Setter Ashley Kozer finished with 43 assists and 12 digs. Can’t forgot outside Maria Tobergte as she led the match in digs with 18. The Bearcats will look to be back at full strength this weekend as outside Maria Mallon and Setter Armania Heckenmueller both did not play tonight. The Bearcats will hope to have both of them back when the kick off conference play this week as both were Preseason All-AAC selections.
The Bearcats will be back in action here at Fifth Third Arena as they welcome ECU for a two match series. The Bearcats will look to start of conference play in the win column on Thursday at 1 pm.
