CHICAGO – The UIC women's volleyball team (10-4, 1-0 HL) opened up Horizon League action with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-13) sweep of Youngstown State (7-8, 0-1HL) on Friday evening in the Flames Athletic Center. The Flames held the Penguins to an attack percentage of just .084 on the night, while hitting a season-high .376 as a team. The.376 clip is good for ninth-highest in the Flames' Division I history.
Kyisha Hunt hit at a season-high clip of .429 with 11 kills, and
Sarah Daneliak hit .571 with nine kills of her own. Both
Ali Witt and
Manuela Conte added seven kills on offense, while
Alexandria Hicks knocked in five.
Libero
Carla Salvato dug out 12 for the defense, and Conte added 11 digs to her offensive contributions.
Brecken Roe and
Nicole Johnson each recorded six digs, with Johnson also bringing in 22 helpers.
The Flames opened up game one with a 4-1 lead and never trailed again in the set. The Penguins encroached, closing the gap to 7-6 off a pair of UIC attack errors, but the UIC offense responded as Witt, Daneliak and Hicks each registered a kill to help extend the lead to 11-6. YSU would only get as close as 16-12 before a seven-point streak put the Flames within two. The Penguins grabbed one more before Witt came up big with an untouchable kill to close it out at 25-14.
Set two was once again all UIC, as the Flames took six unanswered points at the 15-12 mark to extend the gap to 21-12 thanks to a pair of kills from both Daneliak and Hicks. The Penguins took advantage of a few Flames errors, but were once again unable to resurface as UIC took the set 25-18 for a 2-0 lead heading to the locker room.
The third set saw an 8-2 lead for the Flames at the start, but the Penguins would come within two off a pair of kills and a pair of UIC errors. With the score set at 17-11 in favor of the Flames, an offensive surge starring Conte, Hunt and Daneliak put UIC up 23-12. The YSU offense could only come up with one more before the Flames would complete the sweep with a 25-13 win in the third frame.
UIC takes on the defending Horizon League Champions tomorrow in Cleveland State to wrap up the first weekend of Horizon League action. First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT in the Flames Athletic Center.
