CHICAGO – The UIC volleyball team (17-12, 8-8 HL) will head east this weekend to Cleveland, Ohio for its first Horizon League Tournament appearance since 2014. The Flames are seeded fifth, and will face No. 4 Green Bay (13-14, 9-7 HL) in the quarterfinals on Friday, Nov. 17 at 5 p.m. CT inside Cleveland State's Woodling Gymnasium.

LOOKING BACK
UIC closed out the regular season with a pair of losses against two of the Horizon League's top teams. The Flames fell 3-1 on Friday against No. 2 Oakland, and also endured a 3-2 loss against No. 3 IUPUI on Saturday. Alexandra Drosopoulou registered career high kills (19) and service aces (6) on Friday against Oakland, while Nicole Johnson capped the regular season by breaking the all-time career assists record on Saturday versus Oakland. Johnson notched 47 helpers to up her career assist total to 4,669, rewriting the previous record of 4,640.   

WHERE WE RANK
The Flames earned a No. 5 seed after a pair of losses this past weekend, placing them one spot below Friday's opponent Green Bay and just above No. 6 Northern Kentucky, who will face off with No. 3 IUPUI on Friday at 2 p.m. Heading into the Tournament, UIC is second in the conference in service aces, averaging 1.32 per set. The Flames are also sixth in the League in both hitting percentage (.200) and digs (15.68 per set), and are fourth in both kills (13.25 per set) and assists (12.63 per set) as a team.

NEW FACES
The UIC roster boasts seven newcomers, all of which are freshmen. The group includes libero Andrea Aviles, outside hitters Alexandra Drosopoulou, Brecken Roe, Kiera James and Manuela Conte, opposite Alexandria Hicks and setter Kaliegh Skopal. Conte is a redshirt freshman after attending Oklahoma in 2016-17, however she did not appear in a match for the Sooners, retaining four seasons of eligibility. Six of the seven newcomers have appeared in a match this season with James as the lone exception.

SETTING FOR SUCCESS
Utilizing two primary setters, UIC ranks fourth in the Horizon League with 12.63 assists per set this season. The two Flames who spread the ball around, true freshman Kaliegh Skopal and fifth-year senior Nicole Johnson, each rank in the top 10 in the conference in assists. Johnson is eighth with 6.83 assists per set entering the postseason, while Skopal follows in ninth with 5.41. After this weekend, Johnson now owns the all-time career assist record for UIC, while also ranking sixth in the nation in active career assists, tabbing 4,669 career assists during her time in a Flames jersey.

INGRAM IS IN
UIC head coach Justin Ingram is in his first season at the helm for the Flames. He arrived in Chicago following a very successful five-year stint at Southern Illinois in which he guided the Salukis to 101 victories and the program's first NCAA Tournament bid in 2015. Ingram, the seventh head coach in program history, is a two-time conference Coach of the Year after capturing the award in 2015 at SIU and 2011 at Arkansas State. He graduated from Iowa State in 1995 and received a master's degree from Cal Poly in 1998.
  
CONTE'S CONNECTIONS
Manuela Conte, of Bologna, Italy, has a deep family history in volleyball. Her father, Hugo, is a member of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame after he appeared in the Olympic Games three times for his native Argentina. Hugo was a member of the 1984, 1988 and 2000 contingents and he helped the country capture a bronze medal in volleyball in 1988. Conte's brother, Facundo, competed for Team Argentina at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janiero and he also plays professionally in China.

Conte ranks second on the Flames and ninth in the Horizon League with 3.78 digs per set through 108 sets of action. She also leads UIC with 30 service aces this season, ranking her sixth in the conference with a 0.28 per set average. The freshman also leads the Flames with nine double-doubles this season, including her most recent double-digit kill and double-digit dig performance on Saturday (Nov. 11) against IUPUI, when she tallied 11 kills and 20 digs. Conte, alongside fellow newcomer Alexandria Hicks were named to the Horizon League's Freshman Team on Tuesday (Nov. 14) following standout seasons in their first year as Flames.   

HUNTING SEASON
Kyisha Hunt has been UIC's most prolific attacker this season. The Kankakee, Ill., native was named to the Horizon League All-League First Team on Tuesday, and was the only Flame to earn a spot on the squad. The senior leads UIC with 3.67 kills per set, which ranks fourth in the Horizon League, and has recorded 20 plus kill efforts on five different occasions this season. Nationally, the senior ranks 32nd in total kills with 404 and 49th in points, accumulating 463.5 points this season. Hunt also owns the third-best hitting percentage on the Flames, as she's converted at a clip of .249. Hunt was crowned most valuable player at the CEFCU Classic and also represented the Flames on the Cougar Invitational All-Tournament team earlier this season during tournament play.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
UIC's 2017 roster features four international standouts. Manuela Conte and junior Gaia Gbola are from Italy, coming from Bologna and Ravenna, respectively. Alexandra Drosopulou came to Chicago by way of Thessaloniki, Greece. Andrea Aviles' hometown is San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CLOSER TO HOME
Carla Salvato was named Horizon League Player of the week on Sept. 11 following a stellar performance at the CEFCU Classic. The junior registered a career-high 31 digs on Sept. 8 against Bradley, which was only the 15^th time in program history that a UIC player recorded 30 plus digs in a mtch. Salvato dug out 10 in the sweep of Murray State (Sept. 9), and closed out the CEFCU Classic with a match-high 28 digs in the finale against Bradley on Sept. 9. The libero earned a spot on the CEFCU Classic's All-Tournament team, averaging 5.75 digs per set in the tournament, and sits eighth in the Horizon League with 4.08 digs per set this season. Salvato is not just one of the Flames' Chicago natives, but she attended high school right down the street from UIC's urban campus. Salvato attended nearby Saint Ignatius College Prep, which is just west of the Flames Athletic Center. 
 
HAMPTON'S HEROES
Two UIC standouts, junior Alit Witt and redshirt freshman Manuela Conte, were named to the Hampton Inn Invitational All-Tournament Team. Witt averaged 2.42 kills per set while hitting a team-best .323 from her post in the middle. She also added nine blocks in three matches. Perhaps her biggest block of the weekend came as UIC mounted a furious third-set rally in the finale against Duquesne. The Flames trailed the game 17-12 at one point, but led 26-25 when Witt and teammate Kyisha Hunt got together to stuff an attack and complete the sweep.
 
Conte did a bit of everything in what was her first taste of collegiate competition, tallying 4.83 digs per set at the tournament. The Italian dug out a match-high 27 attacks in the season-opening win over Bowling Green and followed that up with 19 more against Xavier in a four-set match. She also finished the Hampton Inn Invitational with 19 kills, four aces, four assists and three blocks.
 
SCOUTING GREEN BAY
Green Bay closed out the regular season with a 3-1 win over Northern Kentucky on Saturday, to secure the No. 4 seed on the Championship bracket. As a team, the Phoenix are at the top of the Horizon League in assists (13.26 per set) and kills (13.92 per set), and sit third in the conference in hitting percentage, hitting at a clip of .230 in the regular season. Green Bay is also seventh in both blocks (1.88 per set) and digs (15.51 per set). Senior Lydia DeWeese leads the Phoenix, as well as the Horizon League with an impressive .346 hitting percentage, while teammate Maddie Yoss is second in the assists category, averaging 11.59 helpers per set. UIC and Green Bay split the regular season's contests 1-1, with the Flames grabbing a win in the most recent meeting on Oct. 27, 3-2.  

LOOKING AHEAD
A win against Green Bay would put the Flames through to the semifinals, where they would face either No. 1 Cleveland State or No. 2 Oakland, who received first round byes. The semifinal match featuring Cleveland State is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18 at 2 p.m., while the second-round match Oakland will be appearing in is slated for Saturday, Nov. 18 at 5 p.m. The victors in each semifinal match will face off for the Championship on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 1 p.m.