MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The UIC volleyball team (12-5, 3-1 HL) got back to its winning ways on Sunday with a 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12) win in a hard fought battle against Milwaukee (8-10, 1-3 HL). The match was a close contest, with neither team winning a frame by more than a four-point margin.

Kyisha Hunt and Manuela Conte paced the Flames offense, with 16 kills apiece. Conte's 16 kills was a career-high mark. Alex Drosopoulou matched her career-high 12 kills on Sunday afternoon, as did Sarah Daneliak with 10 kills. Alexandria Hicks poured in 10 kills on offense, while Alit Witt added seven.

On defense, Conte added 22 digs alongside her career-high kills, and libero Carla Salvato also registered 22 digs. The Flames collected 10 blocks as a team.

The Flames were strong to open up set one, taking an 11-7 victory early on. Milwaukee was able to take advantage of a few UIC errors to turn the tables with a 12-11 lead. From that point, the set saw nine tied scores, as each team turned up the offensive attack. With the score tied at 22 late in the game, kills from Hunt and Conte teamed up with a Panther attack error to allow the Flames to take three-straight points to wrap up set one with a 25-22 win.

Set two began with a 3-0 Milwaukee lead, and left the Flames with work to do, as they eventually fought their way back to tie it at 16 and then take the lead, 18-16. With UIC leading at the 21-18 mark, the Panthers were called back to the bench to regroup before taking four of the next five to tie it at 22 all. Hicks came forward with a kill to temporarily put the Flames up by one before Milwaukee surged ahead for good with a three-point run to take set two 25-23.

The Panthers grabbed a 14-9 lead to start in set three, but UIC dug its heels in and took seven unanswered points thanks to kills from Witt, Conte and Hunt, two Milwaukee errors, a service ace and a Hunt-Witt block to put the score at 16-14 in favor of the Flames. UIC lead at the 21-18 mark when the Panther offense killed two to come within one, 21-20, forcing the Flames to use a timeout. Following the brief pause in action, Hicks buried a feed from Kaliegh Skopal, and Witt and Hicks blocked a UWM feed to put UIC up 23-20. The Milwaukee offense was able to chip in two more before once again Hicks and Skopal added one, and then a Panther error gave the Flames their final point in the 25-22 victory.

Milwaukee once again took an early lead in set four, but the Flames quickly caught up, eventually taking a 19-18 lead. The Panthers scored five in-a-row to go up 23-19, when Conte and Hicks slimmed the gap with a pair of kills, 23-21, but their efforts came up short as Milwaukee took the next two to end it, 25-21.

The tiebreaker saw an 11-7 advantage for the Flames, but the Panthers took the next three to come within one, 11-10. A pair of kills from Hunt gave UIC a little room to breathe, 13-10, but UWM took the next two to once again pull within one, 13-12. A Milwaukee error put the Flames one away from the win, and Hicks put the match to bed with a kill to give the Flames the 15-12 win.

UIC will wrap up its road series next weekend at Northern Kentucky (Oct. 6) and Wright State (Oct. 7).