Follow Down The Drive on Facebook/twitter and check out the store.

I don't often devote a ton of time to the non revenue sports that the Bearcats take part in, mainly because I don't know enough about sports other than Football or Basketball to fake my way through it. Today I make an exception because one of the most successful UC coaches of the last decade is leaving Clifton (and I know a little bit about Volleyball). Reed Sunahara has been at the helm of the Bearcats Volleyball team since 2000 and has overseen the best run in program history.

In his years as the head coach the Bearcats have compiled a 289-109 record, winning 20+ matches in 11 of the last 12 seasons. Sunahara's Bearcats have won 5 conference regular season championships (2000, 2001, 2003 C-USA; 2008, 2010 Big East) and just this past year captured the program first Big East Tournament Championship this season. The Bearcats have been in and out of the national polls during Sunahara's tenure. The Bearcats have made the NCAA tournament three years running. This season's team lost in the second round to Florida State who went onto the final four.

In short Sunhara has built up the UC volleyball program to the highest level it's been. UC isn't quite on the same level as the UCLA's Penn State's and Stanford's of this sport. But the Bearcats have become a power on a regional level and that's quite a legacy for Reed Sunahara to have created.

The No. 19-ranked University of Cincinnati volleyball team won the BIG EAST regular season championship outright and earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament after defeating Marquette University in three sets (25-18, 25-16, 25-20) Sunday, Nov. 14, at the Al McGuire Center.

gobearcats.com

First things first the Men's Soccer team beat #9 Connecticut at Gettler Stadium on penalties to advance to the Big East Tournament Semifinals at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. In the match UC went up 1 nil in the 12th minute, UConn responded to even things up in the 27th minute. The score remained 1-1 for the next 90 minutes, ending the second overtime period 1 all forcing a penalty shootout. UC won the penalty shootout 4-1 to punch a ticket to the Metro Area for the final four of the Big East Tournament where they will match up with Providence on Friday night. Providence holds an all time 2-1-2 mark against UC. In the other half of the draw #1 Louisville and #19 Notre Dame will compete for a birth in the finals. This is the first time since joining the Big East that UC has advanced beyond the quarters of the Big East Tournament. Though the Bearcats won the Regular Season Title in 2006 behind Omar Cummings who plays his club ball for the Colorado Rapids.

Secondly the Women's Volleyball team has moved up in the national rankings from 21st to 19th. Currently sitting atop the conference with just three more league games before the Big East Tournament UC is in pretty good shape to wrap up the regular season championship for the second time in three years. UofL does have an identical 11-1 record in the conference. I don't know what the tiebreaker system is presumably head to head or overall record. In the former the Cards take it, in the later it's UC.

 try my best to keep an eye on all UC sports. But this being college Football season, my focus this time of year is really just on that sport. That probably makes me a shitty blogger but it is what it is. In my defense when I was at UC I went to most sporting events because they were fun, cheap ways to spend a day all that made it easier to keep track of things. Now, given where I live, attending most events is out the window, but I try to keep up with things online. One team who's performance has been on my periphery this fall has been the Women's Volleyball team. Reed Sunahara's girls are 15-3, 4-0 in the Big East and currently ranked 21st in the country. The unquestioned star of the team is Stephanie Niemer who is sitting on a streak of 4 straight weeks being named Big East player of the week.

via www.bigeast.org

Personally I like Volleyball, always have. My sister played in high school when I was a little kid. It was one of the two sports that my high school was always good at, the other was Football so we went to the matches and stuff. As a school we basically mailed in the other 6 months of sports, but I digress. I like volleyball, but I don't know a ton about it. For that reason I will defer to Scott over at Bearcats Blog who put up a great post on the team a few weeks ago and seems to posses the knowledge that I so conspicuously lack on the topic.

The reason why I bring this up is that the volleyball team will be playing Notre Dame on Sunday at five, a match that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. So after watching your NFL team of choice play like shit, in most readers cases I assume that's the Bengals, in mine its the Browns. Flip on over to 1303, for those of you with time warner cable HD,and show your support for what is the most successful team on campus. At the very least DVR it because watching attractive women play sports is never not fun.