Jen Greeny hit two milestones on Wednesday night, coaching both her first volleyball match as a member of the Big 12 and her first home match at the WVU Coliseum.
In that match, though, Greeny’s Mountaineers fell short in three sets to Cincinnati. With the loss, WVU fell to 6-6 on the season and 0-1 in the conference while the Bearcats became the fourth team in the Big 12 to reach 10 wins, staying undefeated in non-tournament matches.
West Virginia broke 20 points in only the second set, scoring 15 in the first, 23 in the second, and 16 in the third. The Mountaineers’ consistent deficit was carried their struggles taking care of the ball.
Compared to Cincinnati, the Mountaineers had at least five attacking errors more than the Bearcats in each set, for a match total of 20 attacking errors to Cincinnati’s four. West Virginia also had 10 missed serves to Cincinnati’s four. Both teams made four errors in serve receive.
The Bearcats found some mistakes handling WVU’s pressure at the net, tallying five blocking errors to the Mountaineers’ two. Overall, though, the Bearcats were a force to be reckoned with on the block, finishing with seven total blocks compared to WVU’s one from right side Lauren Bodily in set three.
Bodily shined in a small sample size on Wednesday. The 6-foot-4 junior provided energy both on and off the court and contributed one block, one dig, and one kill in five attacks.
Sophomore Alexis Finnvold once again found outside hitters Cassidy Tanton and Quincey Coyle most often, with the juniors hitting 31 and 26 attacks respectively. The pair each hit double digits in kills, with Tanton hitting 15 and Coyle hitting 10.
Finnvold also ran quick sets to Maddy McGath in the middle frequently. McGath struggled for the first time since tournament play, hitting a negative rate for the first time this year. The sophomore shined on the recent road trip, with 12 kills against Fairfield and 16 against Binghamton, but finished with three kills and six errors on 20 attacks against Cincinnati.
WVU did hold its own in the back row, with 47 digs. The one-dig advantage came with just two more successful attacks from Cincinnati, who had 97 error-free swings on the night. Graduate student libero Sydney Reed led all players in digs, posting 17. Freshman libero Faith Frame tallied 15 digs for Cincinnati as the match’s only other player to reach double digits in the stat.
The Mountaineers are right back on the road after the home opener, traveling for match two of conference play against Iowa State. The match will kick off at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum and on ESPN+.
Photo by Korey Moore, Blue Gold Sports