CHICAGO – Chicago State volleyball made its return to the friendly confines of the Jacoby Dickens Center tonight after an 11-day absence, but visiting DePaul played the spoiler as it captured a 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-13) victory. With the win, the Blue Demons improve their season record to 3-17, while the loss dropped the Cougars to 0-24 on the year.
Both teams battled through six ties to start the first set before CSU produced blocks on consecutive plays to earn an 8-6 lead. DePaul then went on a 12-1 scoring drive behind seven kills from sophomore Jacie Fiedler to gain an 18-9 advantage. The Cougars would slice their deficit to 21-14 after a kill by freshman Mazvita Maziveyi (Harare, Zimbabwe/Hillside (NC)) (Durham, N.C.) closed a quick 5-3 run, but the Blue Demons closed the stanza by tallying four of the final five points.
CSU opened the second set with a kill by junior Chy Crichton (The Dalles, OR/Mt. Hood CC) (The Dalles, Ore.) to take an early 2-0 lead. After four ties and three lead changes, the visitors used a 12-2 run which turned a 7-7 tie into a 19-9 leading margin after a service ace from freshman Mattie Boyd. The Cougars later pulled within 20-13 on kills from Crichton, redshirt junior Shamara Clark (Bloomington, IN/South) (Bloomington, Ind.) and junior Jean Keenan (/) (Braidwood, Ill.). DePaul then scored the final five points, including a pair of service aces from freshman Molly Creek to head into intermission with a two-set lead.
DePaul kicked off the third set with an 8-3 advantage after back-to-back kills from junior Sarah Cullen. CSU came back by posting a 7-3 run of its own to pull within a single point at 11-10 after a Blue Demon attack error. Two service aces from sophomore Christy Landschoot highlighted an 11-3 scoring drive by the visitors as it hiked its leading margin to 22-13 after a DePaul block. After a Clark kill brought the Cougars to within 22-14, the visitors closed out the match by tallying three of the final four points.
Clark paced the Cougars with five kills and six digs. Crichton notched seven assists, three kills, three digs and two block assists, while sophomore Hanya Minta (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) (Eden Prairie, Minn.) added six digs and five assists. Juniors Niena Posey (Chicago, IL/Lincoln College) (Chicago, Ill.) and Megan Granko (Lockport, IL/Lincoln College) (Lockport, Ill.) each contributed six digs for CSU.
DePaul was led by Fiedler with match highs of 14 kills, five blocks and a .722 hitting percentage. Cullen tallied a double-double of 10 kills and 10 digs to go along with three block assists and Landschoot recorded a match-best 35 assists.
CSU heads to Rhode Island this weekend for a two-match swing beginning Friday night at Bryant with a start time of 6 p.m.
~ CSU ~
