Sept. 20, 2014

Box Score Tournament Central

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The UIC volleyball team (5-9) fell in straight sets (25-18, 25-13, 25-16) to No. 3 Penn State (11-1) Saturday morning in the Flames' second match of the PSU Alumni Classic. The defending-national champion Nittany Lions hit .500 as a team with 51 kills on 90 attempts.

The Flames conclude play in Pennsylvania at 4 pm CT against Eastern Illinois (5-6). The Panthers lost to East Carolina and Penn State on Friday. UIC and EIU have met 32 times in program history and the Flames have won 17 of those matchups.

Junior middle blocker Stephenee Yancy extended her double-digit kill streak to 14 matches with 14 kills on 25 attempts and zero errors for a .560 attack percentage. Yancy's .560 attack percentage is her second highest this season as she hit .590 against DePaul (Sept. 6).

Yancy put down six kills on 13 attempts in the third set. Over her last four matches, Yancy has averaged 17.8 kills and a .406 attack percentage.

Senior Maggie Strus compiled 11 digs for her 11th double-digit effort. She now owns 1,462 career digs, which ranks second in program history, and needs 70 more to become UIC's all-time dig leader.

Redshirt freshman Nicole Johnson dished out 27 assists and increased her nation-leading total to 654. Kara Johnson (five kills), Molly McCoy (four kills) and Sara Jo Sternard (four kills) also contributed offensively.

UIC tied the score twice early in the first set as Yancy put down consecutive kills to get the Flames started on offense. However, PSU used 16 kills and two service aces to go up 1-0 with a 25-18 first set win.

Anouska Best started the second set with her first career service ace to give UIC its lone lead of the match. A kill by McCoy kill narrowed the Nittany Lions' second set lead to 3-2 before PSU went on a 6-0 run on its way to a 25-13 victory. McCoy's fourth kill of the match narrowed PSU's lead in the third set to 7-6 but the Nittany Lions hit at a .613 clip with 20 kills on 31 attempts in a 25-16 win.