Buffalo Box Score

Western Illinois Box Score

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CHICAGO - The UIC volleyball team (4-7) dropped both its matches on Saturday but still placed second at the UIC Invitational inside the Flames Athletic Center. The Flames fell to first-place Buffalo (7-3) 3-1 (25-22, 25-16, 25-27, 25-12) in the first match and suffered a 3-2 defeat (17-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-9) to Western Illinois (2-8) at night.

The Flames make the 65-mile trip to DeKalb Tuesday (Sept. 16) to take on Northern Illinois (6-4). UIC won the last meeting with the Huskies on Sept. 4, 2012 over four sets in Chicago.

Sophomore Kara Johnson led the Flames with 35 kills and 22 digs. She collected two more double-doubles and raised her season total to seven. Johnson, who owns four consecutive double-doubles, put down a career-high 23 kills against Western Illinois.

Junior Stephenee Yancy added 29 kills and six blocks Saturday. She had 17 kills against Western Illinois and 12 more against Buffalo to extend her double-digit kill streak to 11 matches. Yancy was named to the All-Tournament Team after 67 kills with a .359 attack percentage and 13 total blocks over the weekend.

Redshirt freshman Nicole Johnson set a new career-high with 67 assists against Western Illinois and finished the day with 104 helpers. Johnson collected her fourth 60-plus assist performance and her 12.14 assists per set this season leads the nation. She also picked up her fourth double-double with 13 digs against WIU.

Senior Maggie Strus compiled 34 digs and jumped three spots in the program rankings to pass Inga Balzaras (1989-92) into second place with 1,422 career digs. She had 19 digs against Western Illinois after 15 against Buffalo. Strus needs 110 more digs to become UIC's all-time dig leader.

Buffalo 3, UIC 1
Buffalo collected 16 blocks and the Bulls made it tough for the Flames to put down kills. UIC was held to a .062 attack percentage and 43 kills in the loss. UIC led 12-10 in the first set before Megan Lin's service rally put UB up 15-12 and the Bulls held on for a 25-22 win. The Bulls hit at a .440 clip in the 25-16 second set victory to go up 2-0.

UIC won a long third set with 15 kills and four service aces. Yancy's third kill of the frame tied the score at 25-25 before Nicole Johnson's service ace and a block by Yancy ended the frame.

The Flames were held to seven kills in the fourth set and Buffalo secured the match win with a 25-12 victory. The Bulls had five blocks in the fourth set and held UIC to a -.083 attack percentage.

Western Illinois 3, UIC 2
The Flames easily won the first two sets as they recorded a .411 attack percentage and 38 kills. Western Illinois collected five blocks in the third set but UIC still managed to narrow WIU's lead to 24-23 on Kara Johnson's seventh kill of the frame. With Johnson serving, the Leathernecks rallied and forced Yancy into an attack error to win the set.

Western Illinois had four blocks in the fourth set and picked up a 25-18 victory to force a fifth set tiebreaker. UIC led 9-7 in the decisive final set before an 8-0 Western Illinois run with Kaitlynn Novak serving gave the Fighting Leathernecks a come-from-behind victory.

WIU recorded three more blocks in the fifth set and finished with 15 as a team. The Leathernecks also had 11 service aces and only committed 16 attack errors to UIC's 36.

All-Tournament Team
Tahleia Bishop (Buffalo) - MVP
Marissa Prinzbach (Buffalo)
Stephenee Yancy (UIC)
Ann Miller (Western Illinois)
Alexis Plagens (Eastern Kentucky)