Nov. 16, 2001

Box Score

Milwaukee, Wis. - When the opposing volleyball team is serving well, it is often difficult for a volleyball squad to run an effective offense.

This held true for the University of Illinois at Chicago volleyball team as they dropped a 30-17, 30-22, 30-26 decision to Butler in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Volleyball Championships held at UW-Milwaukee's Klotsche Center.

With the victory, Butler advances to the Horizon League semifinals and will square off with the winner of the Loyola/Youngstown State match at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. UIC finishes the season with a record of 15-15.

"It's hard to put this game into words," UIC Head Coach Don August said. "It was obviously not one of our better performances.

"It's just kind of disappointing because we had a very good week of practice and we're very prepared for Butler," August continued. "We spent a lot of time working on this match and to come out and play so poorly is very disappointing."

Butler (12-12) kept UIC (15-15) on its toes all night as they recorded 10 service aces on the night, led by Allison Cox's four aces. Teammate Kamy Peters also chipped in three aces for the Bulldogs.

"They just moved us around forward and backwards," August said. "We knew they had some good servers and that was one of the strengths in their game."

"We were never able to mount a serious offense at all," August continued. "We were never able to get a sustained run going and we were never able to keep them out of a run."

Butler's Keely Norris and Andrea King led the way for the Bulldogs as they each pounded home 12 kills.

Junior middle hitter Gina Caneva topped UIC with 10 kills, while freshman setter Dawn Strahanoski dished out 30 assists on the night.