Marshall University Athletics
MU Volleyball to Play in Bearcat Invitational
9/4/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
MU Volleyball to Play in Bearcat Invitational
9/4/2003
After opening the 2003 season with a tournament title at Indiana State last weekend, the Marshall University volleyball team will attempt to make it two-for-two in preseason tournaments at this weekend?s Bearcat Invitational, hosted by the University of Cincinnati. Butler University will open the competition on Friday with its 5 p.m. match with New Mexico State University, while the Thundering Herd will take on the host Bearcats at 7 p.m. at Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center.
Head coach Mitch Jacobs plans to use this weekend?s tournament as a gauge to measure how hard the team will work in order to achieve success. Jacobs is convinced that his Thundering Herd (2-1) squad can put forth an even better effort at UC, than it did at ISU.
?It was tough to measure our performance last weekend,? Jacobs said. ?It was an erratic effort, but we still came away with two wins, so we?ll see what we got this weekend.?
Marshall received a dynamite performance from Nicole Michal (Louisville, Ky.) at Indiana State. Michal, a senior, tallied 41 kills in the Herd's opening three matches, averaging 3.42 kills per game on her way to being named to the ISU All-Tournament Team. 2002 Mid-American Conference All-Freshman Team member Katie Stein (Sussex, Wis.) recorded 130 assists last weekend, including a career-high 61 helpers versus the host Sycamores.
Cincinnati is off to a hot start after going 3-1 in its season-opening Patriot Invitational last weekend hosted by George Mason University. The Bearcats? only loss came against George Washington on Aug. 29, but they were able to bounce back with two straight victories, 3-0 and 3-1, versus Fairfield and GMU, respectively.
UC leads the series with MU, 6-1, with the last meeting taking place on Sept. 13, 1997, in Huntington. The Bearcats upended the Herd in five sets.
Marshall will begin a busy Saturday with an 11 a.m. match with New Mexico State. The Aggies (2-0) have yet to drop a game in the young 2003 campaign, sweeping both Stephen F. Austin and Texas-El Paso last weekend. Saturday?s match will mark the first meeting between the two schools.
Later in the day, MU will face the Butler Bulldogs (3-1) at 5 p.m. BU lost a heartbreaker on Tuesday after fighting back from an 0-2 deficit, only to lose the fifth game 16-14 to IPFW.
Saturday?s tilt will mark the fourth meeting between the Herd and Bulldogs, with BU posting a perfect 3-0 record versus Marshall.
?If we put forth the kind of effort necessary to compete with these high-caliber teams, we?ll be successful,? Jacobs said.
Stay posted to HerdZone.com for complete results of the Thundering Herd at the Bearcat Invitational. Live stats for all matches can be found at ucbearcats.com, or by clicking the link above.
