Today the Woman’s Volleyball team traveled to Tampa Bay, Florida to kick off game 1 of the 2 game series when they take on the South Florida Bulls. The starters for the Bearcats included, Armania Heckenmueller, Shannon Williams, Maria Mallon, Madison Waters, Alexandra Kwasnik, Adria Oliver and Payton Frederick.
Set 1- Armania Heckenmueller started the game off with an incredible serving ace to give the Bearcats some early Momentum to take the first point of the match. The USF Bulls found momentum right after the Heckenmuller ace as they created a 5-0 run to take a 6-2 lead before the Bearcats called a timeout to try to stop the run. The Bearcats looked to create a run of their own after back to back kills from Adria Oliver and Maria Mallon. The Bearcats dug themselves in a hole after the 6-0 run by the Bulls, but they Bearcats found momentum behind a pair of kills and blocks by Madison Waters and Adria Oliver. The Bearcats created a run of their own cutting the deficit to 2 as they went on a 3-0 run to force a Bulls timeout to trail 17-15. The Bearcats gained momentum after a big 4-0 run to cut the lead to 1. The Bulls answered to end the run as they looked to finish Set 1, but the bearcats weren’t going away easy. The Bearcats got a big block from middle blocker Alexandria Kwasnik and rightside hitter Shannon Williams and that sparked a lot of momentum for the Bearcats to take their first lead since the first play of the match. The Bearcats got a huge kill at 22-22 from freshman middle Alexandra Kwasnik that followed up by a Kerstin Ficker service ace to extend the Bearcats lead 24-22. The Bearcats finished Set 1 behind a big Adria Oliver kill to win Set 1, 25-23. The Bearcats ran a 6-2 offense in the first set which seemed to throw USF off a good bit as both Armania Heckenmuller and Ashley Kozer did a tremendous job controlling the offense after a slow 7-2 start that favored USF.
Set 2- The Bulls started off with a big 3-0 run to get a early lead on the Bearcats, but the Bearcats continued to show their adversity as they rallied back after a USF error and a Adria Oliver overpass kill. The Bulls found their momentum as they continued to hit their spots and find momentum. The Bearcats found themselves in another 5 point hole as the Bulls jumped out to a 9-4 lead before a service error gave the ball back to the Bearcats. The Bearcats found a huge rally as Maria Mallon’s jump serve was giving the Bulls a lot of trouble as she recorded back to back service aces to spark a 6-0 run for the Bearcats to give the Bearcats a 10-9 lead. The Bearcats big run sparked a back and forth battle from there on out as they just exchanged shots back and forth making this set very exciting going down the stretch. The Bulls found a little run of their own to extend their lead to 21-18 before Madison Waters hit a beautiful cross court kill. The Bearcats were on the verge of pulling of another late rally to try to steal the set, but the Bulls sparked some fire to go up 23-20 before the Bearcats called a timeout. The Bulls looked to close the set following an Armania Heckenmuller service error to give the Bulls a 24-21 lead before the Bulls sophomore Ally Barnhart put a ball deep in the back corner of zone 1 to give the Bulls a Set 2 victory 25-21 tying this match up 1-1.
Set 3- The third set started off as both teams traded points back and forth for the first 6 points before a big kill by Shannon Williams which gave the Bearcats a 4-3 lead. The Bulls found a lot of momentum after back to back blocks by Middle Makayla Washington as they jumped out to a 9-6 lead over the Bearcats. The Bulls were very active at the net in this set as they recorded three blocks in the span of 6 points. The Bulls jumped out to a 14-10 lead after the Bearcats called a timeout to try to stop the bleeding and create a run of their own. The Bulls continued to bring the energy as they were continuing to extend their lead as they jumped out to a 20-15 lead which was their biggest lead of the set. The Bulls get a big block to give them a 23-20 lead that was quickly followed up by a Marta Cvitkovic service ace to give the Bulls a 24-20 lead over the Bearcats. The Bearcats weren’t going away easily here in the set, as they went on a 3-0 run that included a bulls error, a Maria Mallon kill, followed by a Payton Frederick service ace which led to the Bulls calling a timeout. The Bulls ended the run after a kill from Aleia Wilburn to give the Bulls a Set 3 victory 25-23.
Set 4- The Bearcats started out Set 4 on a big 4-0 run after the Bearcats had a big rally that all started with the defense from sophomore libero Payton Frederick, Frederick dug multiple hard hit balls from the Bulls that kept the rally going that ended when Shannon Williams absolutely destroyed the ball to record a kill for the Bearcats. The Bearcats followed back with kills from Maria Mallon and Adria Oliver. Payton Frederick continued to get in on the action as she recorded back to back service aces to push the Bearcats to a big 8-1 lead to start Set 4. The Bearcats cooled off as the Bulls started to find some points, but they kept their feet on the neck of the Bulls after that big run to start the set, the Bearcats never looked back after that. The Bearcats jumped out to a 9 point lead when they lead 17-8 as they were looking to send this match to 5 sets. The Bulls jumped out to a 4-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to 6 as they trailed the Bearcats 17-12 before Maria Mallon smashed a cross court kill to get the momentum back for the Bearcats. The Bearcats kept their foot on the gas after this Bulls run as they pushed hard to the end as the Bearcat got back to back kills once again from Maria Mallon as she recorded six kills in Set 4 to lead the Bearcats to an a exciting big win or go home set as they took the set 25-14. The Bearcats ended on a 6-0 run which is huge as the 5th set is only played to 15 points!
