CHICAGO (Nov. 15, 2023) – The UIC volleyball team (20-11, 11-7 MVC) finished the regular season on a high note Wednesday night with a sweep over Valparaiso (18-13, 10-8 MVC) in front of a large crowd at Credit Union 1 Arena.
With the win the Flames secured the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Championship being held Nov. 19-22 in Springfield Mo. UIC secured a first-round bye and will face the winner of No. 6 Illinois State (12-18, 10-8 MVC) and No. 7 Missouri State (15-15, 9-9 MVC) on Monday at 3 p.m. The match, along with all matches at the MVC Volleyball Championship, will stream on ESPN+.
COMMENT FROM HEAD COACH JUSTIN INGRAM
"Coming in where Valparaiso was seated and where we were seated, a lot was on this match to determine who was going to get the bye within the first round of the MVC tournament. Our play tonight was a really special serving performance. I have seen this many rocket-like serves from numerous servers cause problems for such a good receiving team. It was super great all night, 12 aces and three errors. I was certainly very impressed with our service.
COMMENT FROM SENIOR SETTER SOHILA WAFEEK
"I think we played great. We were thinking about the whole match from the beginning. We made amazing adjustments throughout the match. We had good energy from the beginning. We wanted to sweep them from the beginning and we did."
FIRST SET (25-20, UIC)

• After Valparaiso began the set with 4-2 lead, senior Zahria Woodard (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park and River Forest) followed her first kill of the night with a solo block to tie the set at 4-4.
• Sophomore Cleo Lorenzo (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Elite) tallied her third kill of the set to give the Flames a 9-8 lead.
• Back-to-back tandem blocks from Woodard and freshman Gabi Peter (Gilbert, Ill./Hampshire), gave the Flames the 15-13 lead prior to the first media timeout of the evening.
• Kills from senior Mikala Henderson (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael Albertville) and Martina Delucchi (La Plata, Argentina/San Cayetano) were soon followed by a solo block from Becca Oldendorf to give the Flames a 19-17 lead.
• The Flames' first ace of the night came from sophomore Francesca Venturini (Bergamo, Italy/Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi) to keep UIC ahead 23-19.
• Delucchi's fourth kill of the set was soon followed by her first ace of the night to earn UIC the set victory.

SECOND SET (25-21, UIC)

• Back-to-back aces from Tamara Kisic (Belgrade, Serbia) gave UIC an early 2-0 lead in the set.
• The Flames responded to a 6-0 rally from the Beacons with a 5-0 rally of their own. That was highlighted by Delucchi's fifth kill and Venturini's second ace of the night. UIC remained ahead going into a Valparaiso timeout (9-7).
• A pair of kills from Henderson continued to keep UIC in the lead entering the middle part of the set at 15-13.
• Oldendorf's fourth kill of the match ended a 3-0 rally for the Beacons to keep the Flames ahead at 22-19.
• After Kisic's third ace of the set pushed the second set to set point, a tandem block from Delucchi and Oldendorf earned UIC's the set victory.

THIRD SET (25-19, UIC)

• The Flames caught fire to begin the set on a 7-0 rally. One of the highlights of the rally was a sequence by Woodard where she kept a play alive before Delucchi hit her 11^th kill of the match.
• Back-to-back blocks from Woodard continued to push UIC further ahead of Valparaiso at 12-2.
• A trio of kills from Henderson was soon followed by Kisic's fifth ace of the night to keep UIC ahead (17-9).
• Delucchi's 15^th kill thwarted a late rally from the Beacons to keep the Flames with a three-point lead in the closing moments of the set.
• A tandem block from Peter and Woodard was soon followed by Delucchi's 16^th final kill of the match, securing the match victory for the Flames.

BY THE NUMBERS

• The season sweep against Valparaiso is the third MVC opponent the Flames have swept this season, along with Drake and Bradley
• Behind her 16-kill performance, Delucchi has now collected 10-plus kills in six of the last seven matches.
• The Flames collectively earned 12 aces in the victory, tying a season-high for a three set match. UIC also had 12 aces in its 3-0 win against Bradley on Nov. 4.
• Collecting seven blocks in the match, Woodard is now three blocks away from breaking Ambria Springer's single-season total blocks record of 160 that she set in 2006.

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