TCU Volleyball lost in tragic fashion to the Cincinnati Bearcats on Friday, Oct. 6, giving up their undefeated at-home streak, but came back with revenge on Saturday with a 3-0 sweep.
In Friday’s match, the Frogs struggled to keep the momentum on both sides of the ball, falling in a five-set battle to the Bearcats.
Outside hitter Melanie Parra tallied two kills early on in the first set, contributing to the Frogs’ early lead. Tied at 11, the Bearcats took the lead with a kill going up 12-11, and closed out the set 25-21.
TCU regained their defensive momentum going in the second set. Tied with Cincinnati at 14, middle blocker Sarah Sylvester tallied two of her nine total blocks to lead the Frogs on a 4-0 scoring run. TCU led the remainder of the set and finished 25-21 over the Bearcats, tying the match 1-1.
The final three sets of the match were a close battle between the Frogs and the Bearcats, with six lead changes in the fifth set alone. TCU unfortunately fell short of the victory in the fifth set, losing in five sets to Cincinnati.
Following Friday’s match at the post-game press conference, head coach Jason Williams said that “the team just fell out of rhythm, just uncharacteristic errors, and we let [Cincinnati] off the hook to score points against us.”
“Tonight’s match was a little disappointing as we were ahead in every statistic except points,” Williams said. “We just did a really poor job of bouncing back to how we’ve trained and tonight’s performance wasn’t characteristic of a TCU volleyball team.”
Bouncing back from Friday night’s underperformance, the Frogs found their rhythm on both sides of the ball with a 3-0 sweep against the Bearcats on Saturday, Oct. 7. Outside hitter Jalyn Gibson led TCU offensively tallying 16 kills with a .469 hitting percentage. Middle blocker Sarah Sylvester posted nine kills in the match, leading TCU’s dominant defense.
The Frogs trailed behind Cincinnati at the beginning of the first set, but a kill from Parra gave TCU their first lead of the set, 8-7. Sylvester tallied three of her nine total blocks in the first set, holding the Bearcats to a .032 hitting percentage. The Frogs led the rest of the set and secured the first win 25-19.
In the next two sets, TCU held Cincinnati to 14 and 15 points, respectively. Multiple scoring runs throughout both sets gave TCU a strong lead over Cincinnati, contributing to their sweep against them. The Frogs held the Bearcats to a -0.031 hitting percentage in the third set, and Cincinnati finished the match with a .021 hitting percentage because of TCU’s dominant defensive performance.
