Oct. 10, 2009

Box Score

CHICAGO -The UIC volleyball team persevered past seven point deficits late in the first two sets to sweep league-leading Butler, 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-16) on Saturday afternoon at the Flames Athletic Center.

The Flames (10-10, 5-2 Horizon) put up their best hitting percentage in league play with a .260 effort on the afternoon, while holding the Bulldogs (15-9, 5-2 Horizon), who entered the weekend with a Horizon League leading .250 hitting percentage, to a paltry .192 performance.

"What a great team effort," said head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley. "We played for every point in the moment."

The opening set saw UIC trailing 16-11 behind Butler's Jessica Wolfe four kills and six Flames miscues. A timeout set in motion a calm and commanding comeback as the home team chipped away at the seven point deficit that started at 18-11. Six kills from Casie Sullivan, Lana Lobdell and Kelsey Safranek combined with three errors on the Bulldogs highlighted the 9-2 Flames run to tie things up at 20 apiece.

Butler would take a pair of points to tie things at 22, but a Bulldog error with kills from Lobdell and a final smackdown by Epiphany Davis would close things out for the Flames.

Set two was eerily similar, as UIC fell behind after Butler's Wolfe had a banner outing with a quartet of aces to help stretch the Bulldogs lead. Again down 18-11, the Flames rallied with multiple kills from Davis and Safranek, with the freshman slamming down four kills in the later stages of the set for a 19-16 Butler lead.

The Bulldogs would pull within two of clinching the second set, but four attacking errors and a Sullivan kill gave the Flames a 25-23 win to go up 2-0.

With the momentum all on UIC's side of the net, Butler looked deflated as the Flames jumped out to the first solid lead of the match, going up 10-6 before a Bulldog timeout. A 9-6 run by UIC put the match out of reach at 20-12, and the Flames closed up the contest at 25-16.

Freshman Safranek led the team with a 12 kill showing for her 10th double-digit effort on the season. Jessica Dalke set up 32 helpers for the Flames third straight win in a row.

UIC closes out their brief homestand with a visit from Valparaiso tomorrow at 4 p.m. Sunday's matchup against the Crusaders will be available on the Horizon League Network, with Jordan Bernfield calling the action from inside the FAC.

Sunday's contest is "Vertically Gifted Day", where all fans taller than 6-1 will receive free admission.