DEKALB, Ill. – Chicago State volleyball (0-3) dropped a pair of matches to conclude the Northern Illinois Invite I today at Victor E. Court in DeKalb, Ill. The Cougars fell to Connecticut (2-1) via a 3-0 (25-10, 25-11, 25-9) margin in the first contest of the day before falling to Cleveland State in three sets (25-14, 25-14, 25-9), in their final match of the tournament.
In the first match, UConn posted a blistering .597 hitting percentage which included a .667 hitting clip in the final set en route to the win. The Huskies were led by senior Megan Frey, who posted a match-best eight kills to go along with a .800 hitting clip. Sophomore Rebecca Murray produced a 1.000 hitting percentage after converting all seven of her kill attempts. Freshman Anne Lursen tallied a match-high 35 assists and four service aces and junior Jessica Isaac recorded a match-best nine digs for UConn.
Junior Chy Crichton (The Dalles, OR/Mt. Hood CC) (The Dalles, Ore.) led Chicago State with three kills in addition to posting two assists and two digs, while sophomore Hanya Minta (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) (Eden Prairie, Minn.) tallied five assists and a pair of kills with a .333 hitting clip. Sophomore Hope Lockett (St. Paul, MN/Central) (St. Paul, Minn.) recorded a team-high five digs in addition to two kills.
Cleveland State utilized 10 service aces to go along with a .392 hitting percentage to capture the win in the tourney finale for both teams, led by junior Alexis Korovich's match-high 13 kills. Freshman Megan Barhorst added seven kills and posted a .538 hitting clip, sophomore Ami Benz recorded six kills with a match-high three blocks, freshman Jordan Goad tallied 21 assists and senior Jordan Bateman contributed nine digs.
Minta and senior Jessica Schmidt (Walnut Hill, IL/Kaskaskia College) (Walnut Hill, Ill.) each produced four kills to pace the Cougars. Crichton recorded eight digs, seven assists and two service aces, while redshirt junior Shamara Clark (Bloomington, IN/South) (Bloomington, Ind.) added six digs. For her efforts, Crichton was named to the All-Tournament Team.
CSU opens its home schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 2 as it welcomes Loyola to the Jacoby Dickens Center with the first serve set for 7 p.m.
