CHICAGO – The UIC volleyball team (11-2) will head to Chicago State (2-11) for its final non-conference road match of the season on Tuesday at 7 p.m. CT at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center.

The Flames went 1-2 this past weekend at their home tournament, besting UMass Lowell (Sept. 17) and falling to SIUE (Sept. 16) and Bowling Green (Sept. 17), who took home the tournament crown.

Hot Start:
UIC has had an historic start to the 2016 season, and was undefeated heading into the UIC Invitational. The Flames recorded their best start in program history with their eighth victory, a 3-2 decision over South Florida on Sept. 10. The win set UIC at 8-0 on the season, replacing the 1984 squad's record. The Flames then went on to win two more (at DePaul and at Loyola), matching the longest win streak in program history. The 2016 team was the first team to put together ten straight in 20 years, and also gave the Flames their best start under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley.

Striking Sophomore:
Sophomore Ali Witt has added her name to the UIC record books with a historic start of her own. The Crystal Lake, Ill., native earned the fifth-highest single-match hitting percentage in program history against Umass Lowell on Sept. 17 at .786 (11k-0e-14a). The mark is the highest of Witt's career and replaces her previously set career-high mark against USF (Sept. 10), when she hit for a clip of .750 to tie the seventh-highest hitting percentage in program history. The middle blocker owns the highest hitting percentage on the team at .372 (90k-22e-183a) and has hit .500 or above on five separate occasions this season.

Senior Superlative:
Senior Alyssa Ehrhardt has had an impressive start to the 2016 season including most valuable player honors at both the Redhawks Invitational and the DePaul Invitational. The Algonquin, Ill., native leads the team in kills, averaging 3.63 per set. Ehrhardt owns an attack percentage of .235 (185k-61e-527a) on the season and has also collected 116 digs and 22 service aces across UIC's 51 sets.


Double Trouble:
Graduate Transfer Kelsie Groot has made a name of herself within her first month wearing a Flames jersey  by collecting a team-high nine double-doubles. The Irvine, Calif., native owns an average of 3.43 kills per set and is hitting at a clip of .232 (175k-56e-512a) on the season. Defensively, the outside hitter also ranks second on the team in digs with 2.47 digs per set and has collected 24 total blocks thus far.
 
Feeling Great About .408:
As a team, UIC hit .408 on Aug. 27 against New Orleans in the finale of the Redhawks Invitational. The Flames buried an average of 16.7 kills per set against the Privateers, while committing only 2.67 attacking errors per game. The percentage is the sixth-best single-match mark in team history, and the best number since UIC hit .435 against Chicago State on Sept. 8, 1999. Junior opposite Kyisha Hunt (.643) posted an individual career high against UNO, while Witt led the Flames in victory with a career-high 11 kills.

Horizon Hardware:
UIC has earned its second Horizon League accolade in as many weeks, as Kara Johnson recorded her first-career Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week award on Sept. 6. The Champaign, Ill., native registered a team-high 44 digs at the JAX Classic and paced the Flames in that category against all three opponents. In her first season wearing the libero jersey, Johnson currently sits sixth across the Horizon League with 143 total digs and average of 3.49 digs per saet. She was also a member of the All-Tournament team at the Redhawks Invitational.  

Ehrhardt was named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 29, following a sensational effort at the Redhawks Invitational. The Algonquin, Ill., native averaged 4.42 kills, 2.25 digs and 0.67 aces per set for the Flames in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Among her weekend highlights include a career-best 27 kills, while hitting .306, in the season opener against LA Tech, and her first double-double of the season behind 16 kills and 15 digs in the nightcap against SEMO. This was Ehrhardt's second weekly honor from the Horizon League (Sept. 8, 2015).
 
More Fantastic Flames:
Groot represented the Flames on the UIC Invitational All-Tournament team this past weekend, registering a team-high 29 kills on the weekend to average 2.90 kills per set. The Irvine, Calif., native also brought in 24 digs and four total blocks through 10 sets.

Ehrhardt grabbed the most valuable player title at the DePaul Invitational Sept. 9-10, where she collected 53 kills to average 3.79 kills per set. The outside hitter also registered 22 digs and seven service aces. Ehrhardt led the Flames in kills in two of the three matches, including a tournament-high 24 in UIC's match against South Florida. Witt joined Ehrhardt on the All-Tournament team, hitting at a clip of .487 while committing only two errors across the weekend's 14 sets.
 
Earlier this season, Groot was named the most valuable player of the JAX Classic on Sept. 3. Hunt and Ehrhardt were also named to the All-Tournament team for their performances. Both Groot and Ehrhardt closed out the tournament with 40 kills to average 3.64 per set. Groot hit .305 on the weekend, and .371 for the Flames' final two victories on Sept. 3. Ehrhardt led UIC with five service aces, while also averaging 3.36 digs per set. Hunt averaged 3.55 kills per set and recorded four blocks on the weekend.

Ehrhardt and Johnson were joined on the Redhawks Invitational All-Tournament Team by Groot. The Irvine, Calif., native delivered double-doubles in UIC's first two matches, while falling one kill and two digs shy in the sweep over New Orleans in the finale. She averaged 3.58 kills and 2.58 digs during the tournament. Johnson donned the libero jersey for the first time in her collegiate career against Louisiana Tech, and she posted a career-high 25 digs in the match. The Champaign, Ill., native averaged 3.67 digs per set in her first weekend at the position.
 
Where We Rank:
UIC continues to sit at the top of the leaderboards across the Horizon League. As a team, The Flames rank second in the league in kills (13.33 per set), assists (12.31 per set) and hitting percentage (.262). Individually, Witt ranks third in the league in hitting percentage (.372), while redshirt junior Nicole Johnson leads the conference in assists, averaging 10.91 per set. Ehrhardt ranks third in both kills (3.63 per set) and service aces (.43 per set), while Groot joins her on the kills list in fifth with 3.43 per set.
 
Congrats, Coach:
UIC head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley reached a milestone with the team's win over New Orleans to close out the Redhawks Invitational on Aug. 27. The Chicago native entered the season with 97 career victories and the triumph over the Privateers marked win No. 100. Schumacher-Cawley, who now owns 108 victories, ranks third all-time in victories by a UIC head volleyball coach behind 23-year bench boss Don August, and the first head coach in program history, Mary Kapsalis.

About Chicago State
The Cougars went 1-2 this past weekend at the Omni Hotels Invitational in Boulder, Colo. Chicago State bested New Orleans 3-1 in their first match of the weekend before falling 0-3 to both Colorado and Colorado State. Junior Kelsey Taylor led the Cougars against Colorado State with eight digs, while senior Dzeni Hadzisehovic added six terminations. Tuesday's match serves as the home opener for Chicago State, who was played all 13 matches thus far on the road.

Last Time Against Chicago State:
The Flames last faced Chicago State in the finale of last year's UIC Invitational, topping the Cougars 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 25-23, 25-19) on Sept. 5, 2015 to capture the number one spot in their home tournament. Ehrhardt registered 16 kills in the victory, while Hunt added 13 terminations of her own. UIC is a perfect 17-0 all-time against Chicago State, with 13 of the 17 victories recorded in straight sets.