OREM, Utah (Oct. 7, 2008) – Freshman Sarah Clement recorded a .909 hitting percentage thanks to 10 kills on 11 errorless attacks as host Utah Valley posted a 3-0 victory (25-5, 25-9, 25-14) over visiting Chicago State tonight at the Shurian Family Events Center. The Wolverines improve to 5-8 on the year, while the Cougars dropped to 0-20 this season.
In the first set, CSU bounced back from an early 4-1 deficit by scoring three of the next four points to pull within 5-4 on a kill from junior Jean Keenan (/) (Braidwood, Ill.). The Wolverines later broke open a slim 6-5 advantage by scoring the next 19 points in a row to capture a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Cougars regrouped in the second stanza to take a 2-0 leading margin thanks to kills from redshirt junior Shamara Clark (Bloomington, IN/South) (Bloomington, Ill.) and junior Chy Crichton (The Dalles, OR/Mt. Hood CC) (The Dalles, Ore.), but UVU tallied a 7-2 run to claim a 7-4 lead on a block from sophomore Dani Robison and freshman Chelsea Fa'alogo. After the visitors closed its deficit to 8-6 on a Clark kill, the Wolverines finished the set with a 17-3 scoring drive that included six kills from redshirt freshman Jaicee Kuresa.
UVU posted a 10-4 leading margin early in the third set on a kill from freshman Sarah Clement and Clement later increased the Wolverines' advantage to 12-5 with a service ace. A kill from sophomore Lanni O'Reilly and a Fa'alogo service ace hiked UVU's lead to 20-9 before both teams split the final five points with the home team claiming the match.
Clark paced CSU with five kills and a service ace, while Crichton added seven assists and three kills. Sophomore Hanya Minta (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) (Eden Prairie, Minn.) recorded four digs. Junior Megan Granko (Lockport, IL/Lincoln College) (Lockport, Ill.) and Keenan each finished with three digs.
In addition to Clement, freshman Melissa Fifita also posted 10 kills. Fa'alogo produced a match-best 26 assists and two block assists and junior Allyce Wilson notched a match-high 14 digs.
The Cougars return to the Jacoby Dickens Center on Friday night to battle Air Force with a start time of 7 p.m.
~ CSU ~
