Bearcats Come Home With The Championship

April 11th, 2010 | Written by: Kevin Bissmeyer | Posted in recaps |

The Cincinnati Bearcats Travelled to Ohio State University where they participated in the two day Midwest Lacrosse Festival on Friday and Saturday, and came home with their first MLF Championship, as well as the good feeling of avenging their earlier losses to Ohio State and Ohio University. Cincinnati has never won this tournament before, finishing second in ‘08 and third in ‘09, but this year the Bearcats got hot at the right time and were able to make the victorious drive back to Cincinnati for the first time. The tournament started off at 7:00PM on Friday and concluded with the Championship game at 4:30PM Saturday evening.

In the Preliminary rounds of the tournament The Bearcats faced off against Kent State, Ohio University, and Bowling Green going 2-1 with a 3-2 loss to Ohio University. Cincinnati got solid contributions from the entire team as every player was counted on to contribute through the preliminary rounds in order to keep the team fresh for the elimination rounds. UC won their games against KSU and BG 12-5 and 8-4 respectively.

The first round of elimination had the Bearcats facing off against a familiar foe, the Louisville Cardinals, whom the Bearcats have already faced once in the regular season, and twice in the pre-season. Well, a familiar foe produced familiar results as the Bearcats picked up a 5-0 shutout victory and advanced to the Semi-Final round of the tournament against OSU.

In the Semi-Finals Cincinnati got caught up in a hard fought battle with the Ohio State Buckeyes that went into overtime where the Bearcats Sophomore midfielder Andrew Murray was able to win the face-off giving UC the ball. Cincinnati quickly found the back of the net for the 6-5 sudden death victory and advanced to the Finals against Ohio University for the second time in the last three years.

The MLF Championship game was not very much different from the Semi-Final as the teams were tied or within one goal of each other for the entire game.  And just like the previous game, regulation was not enough time to decide the winner and the game would go to overtime. However, in this overtime both teams had opportunities to end the game, but a big save by Goalie Kyle O’Neal, and a huge game winning goal from midfielder Zach Fehr sealed the 4-3 win for the Bearcats as the bench stormed the field to celebrate their first MLF Tournament Championship!

The Bearcats had an outstanding tournament from senior Goalie Kyle O’Neal who denied, rejected, and stuffed almost every shot that came his way posting a shutout and frustrating the other teams to no end. The Bearcats defense got hot at the right time as they were able to control their opponents and keep the crease clear holding their final three opponents to a combined total of 8 goals.

Cincinnati will be playing their last home game of the season on Wednesday night at 8:00PM when they face off against cross-town rival Xavier Musketeers. Dont miss this last chance to see the Bearcats before they begin their NCLL Tournament run.

Bearcats Headed to Columbus

April 9th, 2010 | Written by: Kevin Bissmeyer | Posted in Articles |

Today the Cincinnati Bearcats will head up to the Midwest Lacrosse Festival in Columbus, Ohio to compete with some of the top area teams in one of the final weekends before NCLL tournament play begins. The Bearcats have had a reasonable amount of success in years past as they have made the final four of the MLF in both 08 and 09, but they are hoping this will be the year they win the whole thing. The first three games will be against Kent State and Ohio University on Friday, and then Saturday against Bowling Green. After this preliminary round of play the teams will be seeded and the elimination rounds will begin. The tournament should culminate with a championship game around 8PM.

Cincinnati would also like to announce a few schedule changes that have occurred recently. The games against Miami and Western Michigan scheduled for the 11th have been cancelled due to unavoidable field issues in Miami. The Bearcats final home game will be against Xavier on April 14th at 7PM as they look to finish off their year undefeated at home. The Bearcats are also close to finalizing the game times and locations for their New York trip on April 23rd and 24th, and would also like to announce that the NCLL Regional Final game against Slippery Rock has been moved up to April 25th. The game will be played at Slippery Rock and the game time will be posted in the near future.

Be sure to check the schedule to stay up to date with schedule changes!

Schedule Changes

March 31st, 2010 | Written by: Kevin Bissmeyer | Posted in Articles |

The Bearcats would like to announce a few changes to their end of the season schedule. They have scheduled an inter-squad scrimmage for Friday night at 7:00PM at Nippert Stadium, and they have also agreed with Buffalo State to take an end of the year trip to New York to play a few of the area teams. The times, teams, and terms are still being negotiated, but the schedule will be updated as soon as the teams have reached an agreement. UC is also in the process of setting up a wednesday night game with their cross-town rival Xavier University. This game will be played at XU and will take place on either April 7th or 14th.

After a tough loss to Ohio University before heading on Spring Break, the Bearcats will look to fine tune their game in the scrimmage against the Mens Team and then travel to Ohio State the following weekend for the Midwest Lacrosse Festival. The MLF will conclude on April 10th, and on April 11th Cincinnati will travel to Oxford, Ohio to take on Western Michigan. This is a tough stretch of upcoming games and the Bearcats will need to perform well to secure their place in the NCLL Tournament. Come out and support the Bearcats as they look to qualify for the tournament for their fourth consecutive year.

‘Cats to Scrimmage Xavier Wednesday Night

March 8th, 2010 | Written by: Kevin Bissmeyer | Posted in Articles |

The Cincinnati Bearcats would like to announce that they will be hosting Xavier University at Nippert Stadium on Wednesday March 10th. This scrimmage will be the first time the Bearcats have hosted a night game at Nippertand it should serve as a great opportunity to prepare for their upcoming meeting with Ohio University. The scrimmage will be played at 7PM under the lights and will end around 9. Come out and support the Bearcatsas they welcome their rival Muskies in the “lacrosse-town showdown”.

Cincinnati would also like to announce that they are now selling team gear and apparel on a limited basis. If you are interested please contact Coach Bissmeyer at bissmeyer@bearcatlacrosse.com. The merchandise offered will be; black UC lax hoodies, black UC lax sweatpants, grey UC lax t-shirts, black game jerseys, and white game jerseys.

Cincinnati Suffers First Loss

March 8th, 2010 | Written by: Kevin Bissmeyer | Posted in recaps |

On Sunday the Bearcats travelled to Denison University for a double-header against Denison and Ohio State. These games figured to be the first that would really test the Bearcats, and they certainly lived up to those expectations. Cincinnati was able to pull off a come from behind 9-7 victory over Denison University, but lost their second of back to back games 12-8 to Ohio State University.

In the first game against The Big Red, Cincinnati was unable to get things going in the first half and looked very sluggish as they found themselves trailing 4-2. In the second half the Bearcats looked like a totally different team as they went on to rack up six more goals while limiting Denison to just Two. Midfielders Zach Fehr and Ray Harper were instrumental in the win as they filled in for the Bearcats three injured face-off specialists and were able to win ten out of seventeen face-offs against Denison. Great games were also turned in by attackmen Bobby Nagle and Danny Macauley who scored four goals and two goals respectively. Although the first half was sloppy the Bearcat defense really stepped it up in the second half and did a great job of playing physical and imposing their will on the Denison attackmen.

The Bearcats took a quick fifteen minute break to rest and stretch out before suiting up again to play the Ohio State Buckeyes in what turned out to be a game the Bearcats will want to forget. Cincinnati came out slow, and let the game get away from them early as a barrage of dropped balls, bad passes, and missed assignments contributed to a hole to large for the Bearcats to climb out of. Cincinnati made a push in the second half and began playing better lacrosse, but it was too little too late as Cincinnati dropped their first game of the year. The stats tell the story of this game as Cincinnati lost the ground ball battle 20-12 and lost the face-off battle 16-7.

These games will move the Bearcats record to 5-1 on the season keeping Cincinnati at the top of the Midwest South Conference. UC will travel to Athens to take on the Ohio University Bobcats next week in hopes of avenging their overtime loss in the pre-season; don’t miss this opportunity as it promises to be a great game of lacrosse!