Volleyball Snaps Cincinnati’s Six-Match Winning Streak With Sweep Friday

Friday, October 18

New Orleans, La.

7 PM

Tulane University

15-5, 5-2American

Cincinnati

14-5, 6-1American

Cincinnati

Tulane

Photo by: Niamh Brennan

Volleyball Snaps Cincinnati’s Six-Match Winning Streak With Sweep Friday

Oct 18, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Photo Gallery vs. Cincinnati

NEW ORLEANS, La. – On Friday night with a loud crowd, the Tulane volleyball team fed off the energy inside Fogelman in Devlin and earned a statement win by snapping the Cincinnati Bearcats' six-match American Athletic Conference winning streak with a 25-23, 25-22, 25-22 sweep in New Orleans.

In one of the most complete performances for the squad this season, the Green Wave (15-5, 5-2 The American) hit .327 as a group with 45 kills on 39 assists, while holding Cincinnati (14-5, 6-1) to a .204 hitting clip as the Bearcats hit into eight Tulane blocks and 44 digs as a group.

"It was a complete team performance where we played a complete match. It's our best match of the season. We've played at this level many times but haven't been able to maintain it," head coach Jim Barnes said. "Having Makala back on the floor was big, because we had been playing without some starters and had been battling, but this was a complete performance that I couldn't be any more proud of. We put out a game plan and followed it to a 'T.'"

Junior Lexie Douglas led all players with 14 kills and hit .370 in the match, adding seven digs. Yvette Burcescu had eight kills and hit .500 with no errors, three digs and two blocks. The middle duo of Kayla Dinkins and Lauryn Green combined for 14 kills and eight blocks for Tulane.

Amanda Giardina had 17 assists, bringing in seven digs and added three kills, while Taylor Henigsman had 11 assists and six digs. Kaylie McHugh had 10 digs to lead the Green Wave, followed by Makala Heidelberg who had nine digs, four kills and three blocks.

Cincinnati opened the match rattling off six of the first nine points to take a 6-3 lead over Tulane to open the match. After a kill from Burcescu, the Bearcats scored three of the next four to go up 9-5, as after the two sides traded points the visitors sat with a 10-6 lead over the Green Wave.

From there, Tulane began to find its stride and beginning with a Douglas kill the Green Wave rattled off four straight points to tie the set at 10-10. That run gave the squad confidence that continued to filter throughout the rest of the set, as after a 5-1 run that pushed the Cincinnati lead to 15-11, Tulane came right back and knotted the set again at 15-15.

The opener finally turned in Tulane's favor as with the visitors up 21-19, Tulane scored five of the next six to go up 24-22. Cincinnati scored a point on a kill after that, but Burcescu closed the set with an emphatic kill from the right side to give the Green Wave the opener 25-23.

Instead of needing to rally to come back, Tulane opted to open the second the same way it ended the first and that was by playing on the front foot. A Green Wave kill capped a 5-2 run to open the set for Tulane, as a Giardina kill off the misdirection after a Cincinnati point made the score 6-3 in favor of the home side.

The Bearcats scored four of the next five to tie the set at 7-all, but a kill from Douglas, service ace from Jillian Dits and an unforced Cincinnati error pushed Tulane's lead back to multiple points up 10-7.

Cincinnati made things interesting, as Tulane saw it's 16-11 lead evaporate after the Bearcats went on a 7-2 run to eventually tie the set at 18-18. However, Cincinnati would be unable to keep the Green Wave from regaining their confidence, as a kill from Green and a block from Green and Kristen Thompson pushed Tulane's lead to 20-18.

After going down 22-19, the Bearcats called a timeout and out of the break a bad set pushed Tulane's lead to 23-19. While Cincinnati got the next two points after that, Tulane was already on the brink of taking the set and got a kill from Douglas and one from Burcescu after a Cincinnati point to go up two sets in the match with a 25-22 second-set win.

Eight ties and three lead changes littered the first 18 points of the third set, as Cincinnati was looking to keep the match alive while Tulane was looking to put in the final blow. With the match tied at nine, Tulane got a kill from Giardina and a big block from Dinkins and Burcescu to go up 11-9 to break the difference.

Cincinnati would have its spurts in the set and needed every one of them to just keep the set within a handful of points as Tulane proved to be too much to never let the Bearcats go on a long enough rally to make a game of it late.

The Bearcats pulled to within three of the Green Wave at 21-18, however another Tulane three-point swing put the team on the doorstep of the sweep leading 24-18. Cincinnati was able to stave off match point four times, but Heidelberg was able to put the final ball away from the left side to end the match giving the Green Wave the sweep and handing Cincinnati its first loss in league play.

"We talked in the locker room and I told the team to focus on the next match, but not today. Tonight, we want to enjoy this one and I want them to dream about this one all night, and when we get together tomorrow we'll talk about ECU," Barnes said.

The Green Wave return to action Sunday afternoon, hosting the ECU Pirates at 12 p.m. inside Fogelman in Devlin. The match will be televised on CST with Leah Secondo and Andrew Beyer and will be streamed on ESPN3.

Single-game tickets for the 2019 season can be purchased by calling 504-861-WAVE (9283), logging into TulaneTix.com or visiting the ticket office at the James W. Wilson Jr. Center.

Follow Tulane volleyball on social media at @GreenWaveVB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

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