The Chicago State women's volleyball team picked up its first home conference win of the season with a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-20, 25-17) of Dixie State University Saturday afternoon at the Jones Convocation Center in Chicago. With the win, the Cougars improve to 10-6 overall and 2-2 in the Western Athletic Conference while the Trailblazers fall to 2-9 overall and 1-2 in the WAC.
In the first set, the teams exchanged points before a pair of errors put the Trailblazers in front, 3-1. The Cougars quickly came back though and with and, following a kill by Mesalina Severino, knotted the score 5-5. The teams continued to exchange points and, after being tied 13-13, the Trailblazers went on a 5-1 run to extend the Dixie State lead to 18-14.
However, with momentum-sparking kills by Jaclyn Inclan and Nailah Jones, the Cougars quickly rallied to a 21-19 lead that forced Dixie State to a timeout but the Cougars carried the momentum to a 25-20 first-set win capped by a ferocious kill by Yanlis Feliz.
Dixie State jumped out to a commanding 8-3 lead to start the second set with a combination of of CSU attacking errors and a kill by Megan Treanor that forced a Chicago State timeout. CSU regrouped following the stoppage and rallied back to tie the second set 8-8. Much like the first set, the Trailblazers gained a lead in the set's late stages at 17-15. However, the Cougars once again came back to lead 20-19 with two kills by Feliz, which forced Dixie State to a timeout. Chicago State continued the momentum out of the timeout and captured the second set by an identical first-set score of 25-20.
Dixie State again jumped out to an early third-set lead at 2-0 with a kill by Treanor and an attacking error by Chicago State. The Cougars quickly bounced back with a kill by Feliz to make it 2-1, sparking a scoring run featuring kills Feliz and Nailah Jones, which brought the score to 16-9, forcing a Dixie State timeout. Dixie State trimmed the lead to 17-14, forcing a Chicago State timeout. The Cougars regained momentum and dominated down the stretch to a 25-17 third-set win and 3-0 match sweep.
Next up for the Cougars will be conference foe New Mexico State at home, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m.
About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title and made an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet.
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