Volleyball Downs Third Place Cincinnati, 3-1

Wednesday, November 11

Memphis, Tenn.

7:00 PM

University of Memphis

15-13, 6-9American

Cincinnati

16-10, 8-7American

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Cincinnati	17	12	25	23	1
Memphis	25	25	17	25	3

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Nov 11, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Tigers sweep regular season series with Bearcats.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis volleyball team (15-13, 6-9 American) had three players with double digit kills for the first time since a September 27^th in a 3-1 win over third-place Cincinnati (16-10, 8-7 American), Wednesday night to wrap up a five-match home stand.

"We had some hitters really show up and turn in some great performances," Head Coach April Jauregui said. "We needed this. We knew from watching film that we are not a bad team, we just had some bumps and if we could get over that hump, we could gain some momentum hopefully for the rest of the five matches here in conference."

Memphis came out of the locker room hot, hitting .325 and .353 in the first two sets to take a 2-0 lead in to the locker room at the break.

"We served really well in those first two sets, so that took them out of system," Jauregui said.

But the 10-minute cooling off period between the second and third sets was all Cincinnati needed to steal the third set, capitalizing on four Memphis serve-receive errors, two ball handling errors and a Tiger offense that hit .000 on 23 attacks to take the set 25-17.

The match seemed to be shaping up to be a repeat of the two team's earlier meeting in the conference opening weekend at Cincinnati. In that match, Memphis went up 2-0, only to see Cincinnati storm back and win sets three and four and force a fifth set.

In the fourth set, Cincinnati jumped up 11-5 before a kill from setter Faith Myers started a 5-1 Memphis run that cut the deficit to 12-10 and force a Bearcat timeout. Memphis stayed on the gas out of the timeout, using a block from Summer Morgan and McKenzie Hayes and a kill from Catlin Lilly on the longest point of the match to tie the score at 12-all. Memphis surged in front off one of four Lindsey Purvis service aces and another block from Hayes and Morgan pushed the Memphis lead to 14-12. In all, Memphis would score a season-best 14 total team blocks, including a career-best nine from Hayes and eight from Morgan.

"Cincinnati is a really young, but very good team, the future is very bright for them," Jauregui said. "But I'm happy to get two wins against the third place team in the conference and our girls should feel great about it."

Agomuo led Memphis with 15 kills, while Morgan posted back-to-back double-digit kill performances for the second time this season, finishing with 13 kills. Hayes added 12 kills and just missed the double-double with nine total blocks, including one solo stop. Purvis led all players with four aces and 21 digs and Myers quarterbacked the offense to the tune of 43 assists and six digs, adding two aces of her own.

Memphis goes back on the road for three straight matches, playing at East Carolina, Friday, at 5:30 p.m. (ET). The match time for that game has been moved up due to an ECU basketball game that evening. Memphis is off Sunday, then is back at it at UCF, Friday, Nov. 20 and at USF, Sunday, Nov. 22 in their final road match of the year.