Oct. 8, 2010
ST. LOUIS - The UIC volleyball team will step out of Horizon League play this weekend for a match against the Atlantic 10 Conference's Saint Louis Billikens at Chaifetz Pavilion on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Flames (9-9, 4-4 Horizon League) are fresh off a thrilling five-set victory over Green Bay on Wednesday night. In an epic, back-and-forth affair, UIC built a 10-4 lead in the decisive set only to see the Phoenix go on an 8-2 run to knot it 12. The Flames buckled down on defense and following back-to-back kills by sophomore Kelsey Safranek, emerged with an important conference victory.
Saint Louis (7-9, 2-2 Atlantic 10) is coming off of a 2009 NCAA Tournament run, but returns only two starters from that group. The Billikens boast one of the deepest freshmen classes in the country, earning a No. 18 ranking from PrepVolleyball.com.
Junior Alyssa Deno leads the Billikens offensive attack with 3.37 kills and 0.37 aces per set. One of the highly-touted freshmen, setter Hannah Kvitle, ranks 41st in the country with 10.60 assists per set. Sophomore Carly Marcum leads the team with 43 blocks, and freshman middle blocker Andrea Beaty has 40 blocks.
Saturday's match will be streamed live on the Internet via Billiken All-Access at www.slubillikens.com. Subscriptions are available for $79.95 annually or $9.95 a month.
UICFlames.com will provide a live in-game blog of the match right here. The blog will begin shortly before the match begins on Saturday. Live stats will also be available via GameTracker.
