CHICAGO — The Chicago State women's volleyball team (16-8. 8-4 WAC) took down the Seattle University Redhawks Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at the Jones Convocation Center, winning the sets, 25-15, 30-28, 27-25.
The victory was the Cougars' sixth win in their last seven matches, continuing the best season in Division I program history, with a record 16 wins. Prior to this season, no CSU volleyball team in the Division I era had won more than 12 matches.
Yanlis Feliz registered double-digit kills for the 33rd consecutive match, continuing her reign as the WAC's most prolific player. Feliz leads the conference and ranks third in NCAA Division I in kills per set.
In the first set of the match the Redhawks came out hot and racked up an early 2-0 run. However, the Cougars answered right back with one of their own capitalized with a ferocious kill by none other than Feliz.
This trend of play continued as neither team could create any type of separation. It wasn't until a 10-9 lead for the Redhawks that the Cougars suddenly erupted 15-6 run that ended a dominant showing for the Cougars at a final score 25-15, giving them a 1-0 lead in sets.
At the start of the second set, both teams once again kept matching each other point for point as this echoes throughout the entire set ultimately leading to a thrilling 25-25 tie in which a two-point lead was needed for the victory.
This went up to a 28-28 tie when suddenly Chicago State established their superiority with a mesmerizing service by Maria Lopez and with the help of an attacking error by Seattle, as they sealed the set two victory with a score of 30-28, giving them a 2-0 lead in set overall with a clean sweep up for grabs.
In the third set of the match, the Cougars came out hot off their set win and jumped out to a firey 4-0 lead. The Redhawks answered back with only one point as the Cougars continued their rampage up until a 7-1 score capped off with three astonishing kills, two by Feliz and one by
Ezgi Dokuzlar.
Nonetheless, the Cougars impressive lead was short-lived, as the Redhawks rallied back to tie it all up at 18-18.
From here, the Redhawks went on a 3-1 scoring run, forcing the Cougars to a timeout as they looked to sort out frustrations with a score of 21-19.
The Cougars came out of the timeout energized as they rallied back to tie it all up at 22-22. However, this led to yet another 25-25 thriller ending where Chicago State erupted and capped off the win at 27-25 with a kill by
Berenice Almeyda.
The Cougars made a clean 3-0 sweep of the Redhawks.
The Cougars next face Grand Canyon on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Phoenix before rounding out the regular season on Saturday, November 13 against New Mexico State. CSU will then plunge into its second consecutive WAC Tournament.
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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