CHICAGO - Chicago State volleyball gets its first action of the 2009 season at the Jacoby Dickens Center this Thursday evening with a non-conference match against Butler with the first serve set for 5 p.m.
CSU opened the Shakeila Castile-Jones era last weekend with a valiant effort at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Classic in Peoria, Ill., hosted by Bradley. The Cougars fell to IUPUI, the host Braves, USC Upstate and Lehigh in the tournament, but showed a lot of promise in playing some close sets.
Freshman middle blocker Kimberly Naut (Reno, NV/Galena) (Reno, Nev.) leads CSU with 1.58 kills and 0.50 blocks per set, while redshirt senior Shamara Clark (Bloomington, IN/South) (Bloomington, Ind.) is the team leader in digs with an average of 2.75 per set and junior setter Hanya Minta (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) (Eden Prairie, Minn.) has averaged a team-best 4.83 assists per set.
Butler heads to the Windy City sporting a 3-1 record after winning the IPFW Volleyball Tournament title with wins over Drake, Eastern Illinois and Kent State coupled with a loss to the host Mastodons. Junior outside hitter Jessica Wolfe, who captured tournament MVP honors at IPFW, is averaging 4.58 kills, 3.08 digs and 1.08 blocks per set to lead the Bulldogs. Freshman setter Gina Vera is pacing the BU offense to a .258 hitting percentage while averaging 11.42 assists per set, and junior libero Brittany Awai has posted a team-best 4.67 digs per set.
The Cougars are back in action on Tuesday, Sept. 8 as they travel north to Rogers Park to battle intra-city foe Loyola at famed Alumni Gym with a start time of 7 p.m.
~CSU~
