Oct. 30, 2001
Final Stats
Charleston, Ill. - The UIC volleyball team rolled past the Eastern Illinois Panthers in impressive fashion Tuesday night, 30-23, 30-24, 30-27 to get back to the .500 mark with a 12-12 record on the year.
"It was a very good win for us because they are having a good season and they're in first place in their conference," UIC Head Coach Don August said. "Plus, we had to travel three-plus hours to play."
And the Flames certainly did come to play. After falling behind 5-1 in game one, UIC went to work to come back and take a 30-23 win.
Game two was all UIC as it never trailed en route to a 30-24 decision.
In game three, the Flames and Eastern Illinois played a seesaw battle with the Panthers taking a 24-22 lead.
UIC, however, won eight of the next 11 points to close out the victory with a 30-27 win in the final game.
"I don't think Eastern played particularly well," August said, "but I'm not going to apologize for the opponent because they're the home team and they should play well."
Gina Caneva (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) played a big role in the Flames' victory as she turned in her third straight match hitting 45 percent or better.
Tuesday night, the junior middle hitter finished up with 12 kills to go along with a hitting percentage of .455. Five of her 12 kills came during UIC's final run in game three.
Caneva didn't defeat the Panthers alone, however. Sophomore Teaha Shepperd (Kalamazoo, Mich./Galesburg-Augusta) added 11 kills while freshman setter Dawn Strahanoski (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) tallied 38 assists and 11 digs.
Sophomore Lindsey Filkins (Downers Grove, Ill./South) also added seven kills and 15 digs and senior Vicki Lublow (Elgin, Ill./Elgin-Larkin) chipped in eight kills and 19 digs.
"Gina was outstanding tonight," August said. "It was just a great hitting match for her. She and Dawn (Strahanoski) had some pretty good timing and she just crushed the ball."
The Flames return home this weekend for a pair of Horizon League outings starting Friday night, Nov. 2, when they host Wright State at 7:00 p.m.
On Saturday, UIC welcomes Butler to the Windy City for a 4:00 p.m. match-up.
