Nov. 1, 2014
Box Score
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The UIC volleyball team (12-14, 6-5 HL) rallied back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Cleveland State (11-13, 4-7 HL), 3-2, (25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 25-14, 15-12) Saturday afternoon. The Flames beat the Vikings in five sets on the road for the second straight season.
The Flames recorded a season-high 13 total blocks in the victory. During last year's five-set win at Cleveland State, UIC also set a season-high in total blocks (12).
With the victory UIC remains in fifth place in the Horizon League standings. The Flames put two games between themselves and Cleveland State, who is in sixth place.
Junior Stephenee Yancy, who ranks 11th in the nation with 442 kills, put down 25 kills on a season-high 50 attempts for a .320 attack percentage. Yancy's 25 kills is her second highest output of the season and her seventh 20-plus kill performance. She owns four 20-plus kill efforts over the last five matches.
Yancy had seven kills on eight attempts in the first set victory and five in the decisive fifth set. She also had five total blocks, including three in the fourth set win.
Senior Sara Jo Sternard put down 17 kills on 29 attempts and zero errors for an impressive .586 attack percentage. She had six kills in both the first and fourth set victories. Sternard also tied her career high with eight total blocks, including four solo blocks.
Sternard increased her career kill total to 993 and needs seven more to become the 16th member of UIC's 1,000 Kills Club. She already ranks sixth in program history with 78 solo blocks and ninth with 319 total blocks.
Redshirt freshman Nicole Johnson, who ranks second in the nation with 1,170 assists, dished out 56 assists for her ninth 50-plus performance of the season. Johnson owns the top two assists efforts during Horizon League play as she had 59 at Valparaiso (Oct. 17).
Redshirt senior Maggie Strus compiled a match-high 21 digs to increase her program-record total to 1,619. She collected her fourth 20-plus dig effort of the season and her first since Sept. 12 against Eastern Kentucky.
Sophomore Kara Johnson put down 14 kills on 34 attempts for her second straight and 20th double-digit performance. She also tallied a service ace for the third consecutive match.
Senior Molly McCoy had 15 digs, nine kills and three blocks while sophomore Casey Harris recorded three more total blocks. McCoy has four double-digit dig efforts over the last eight matches and Harris owns 14 blocks over her last three contests.
UIC used 18 kills to pull away from a 15-15 tie in the first set and ultimately went up 1-0 with a 25-23 victory. The second set featured 13 ties, including 20-20 following Yancy's fifth kill of the set. CSU responded with four straight points and tied the match with a 25-23 win.
The Vikings had four blocks and limited the Flames to a .083 attack percentage in the 25-20 third set victory. UIC led 15-11 but CSU hit .400 as a team with 14 kills to gain the advantage. The Flames defense had six blocks and held CSU to only eight kills in a commanding 25-14 fourth set win to force a fifth set tiebreaker.
Maggie Hannon's 14th kill of the afternoon tied the fifth set 11-11 before a Yancy kill and three CSU errors ended the match. A Harris and Yancy dual block made it 14-12 before a Christina Toth attack error gave UIC its sixth Horizon League win of the season.
UIC concludes the regular season with a four-match homestand, which starts Friday (Nov. 7) against first-place Oakland (16-9, 8-2 HL). The Flames also play host to Wright State (4-20, 1-9 HL) Saturday afternoon.
