CHICAGO -- UIC will begin its first season as members of the Missouri Valley Conference on Friday, Aug. 26, when the Flames travel to in-state foe Northern Illinois for the Huskie Invitational.

FIRST SERVE
• The Flames will face South Dakota State (10 a.m.) and NJIT (4 p.m.) on Friday before rounding out the opening tournament of the season on Saturday against tournament hosts Northern Illinois (2:00).
• UIC returns every starter from last year's squad in addition to welcoming seven new members to the team.

NEW HOME
• It was announced on Jan. 26 that UIC would be officially joining the Missouri Valley Conference for the start of the 2022-23 academic year.
• The Flames were 1-of-3 schools to make the move to the MVC prior to the start of the year as Belmont and Murray State join UIC as newcomers to the conference.
• The addition of the three new schools gives the MVC a 12-team league for the first time in conference history.
• The Flames are 1-of-4 schools from the state of Illinois in the Missouri Valley Conference, joined alongside Bradley, Illinois State and Southern Illinois.

PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS
• Ahead of its first season of competition in the MVC, the UIC volleyball team was picked to finish third in the 2022 MVC Preseason Poll.
• The Flames earned the second-most first-place votes with three, trailing only Illinois State who was picked atop the poll and earned five first-place tallies.
• The Redbirds garnered 134 points to be named the preseason favorite while Evansville (121 points, 2 first-place votes) and UIC (108 points) were the only other two programs to collect 100 or more points from the league's coaches.

FLAMES MAKE HISTORY
• The 2021 Flames made program history, earning the program's first-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament.
• UIC earned its spot in the tournament following the program's second-ever conference championship. The Flames also won the 1989 North Star Conference Tournament, however the NSC champion did not receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament at that time.
• The Flames traveled to Louisville to take on the top-seeded Cardinals in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

VETERAN PRESENCE
• The Flames will take the court this year behind a veteran-led team. UIC's returning veterans accounted for 99.8% of the team's kills, 94.9% of the squad's digs and 80.9% of their assists a season ago.
• All six starters, and the team's libero, return to the court in 2022. These seven top contributors are comprised of six juniors and one graduate student.
• In total, UIC features 11 upperclassmen (1 graduate student, 10 juniors). The Flames have a redshirt sophomore, and a pair of sophomores returning in 2022 while welcoming seven newcomers to the program as freshmen.

TOP RETURNERS
• Paola Santiago leads a deep roster of returners in 2022 after earning AVCA North All-Region Honorable Mention honors a season ago.
• Santiago was one of two players to earn First Team All-League honors last season, joined alongside Martina Delucchi.
• Additionally, Sohila Wafeek was named All-League Second Team and Salma Abdelhady was selected to the All-Freshman Team.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
• UIC is well represented across the globe, as nine of its players come to Chicago from outside the continental United States.
• The Flames have two athletes from Argentina (Martina Delucchi, Liza Garrido), three from Egypt (Sohila Wafeek, Salma Abdelhady, Ayat Amin), and one  each from Puerto Rico (Paola Santiago), Brazil (Cleo Lorenzo), Italy (Francesca Venturini) and the Philippines (Jillian Santos).