OREM, Utah — The Chicago State women's volleyball team (0-2, 0-2 WAC) lost, 3-0, to Utah Valley (6-3, 6-2 WAC) Tuesday evening in its second match of the season.
"The kids fought really hard," head coach Tanio Trifonov said. "The third set was competitive, but there were too many missing pieces. We played too tense. We were competitive yesterday, and they saw that winning is within reach. Yesterday, we played a little bit looser, which we need to do all the time. Today, there were a lot of tension errors."
During the opening set at Lockhart Arena, Chicago State cut back on the service issues that dominated the previous night's match. After allowing 11 aces Monday, the Cougars yielded just one Utah Valley ace in set one. Kills from
Mesalina Severino,
Yanlis Feliz,
Maria Lopez and
Nailah Jones had the Cougars trailing just 9-7 before the host Wolverines unleashed a tear. Utah Valley proceeded to win the next five points and didn't look back, cruising to a 25-14 set win.
An
Andrea Calderon ace capped off a 3-1 Chicago State rally to kick off set two. Calderon, the freshman libero, executed a tremendous diving dig a few points later, but the hot-blocking Utah Valley squad surged ahead to an 8-5 lead. The Cougars then won of nine of the next 13 points, leading 14-12 moments later. A Feliz service ace and kills from Lopez and Jones highlighted the run. The tide then shifted, as the Wolverines executed tremendous play at the net to win set two, 25-18.
In the third set, Utah Valley jumped out to a 9-2 lead before the Cougars clawed back. During a 12-4 run that powered Chicago State ahead, 14-13, Calderon tallied two aces. A slew of attack errors between the two squads then brought the set to a 16-16 stalemate.
The Cougars and Wolverines traded blows in the subsequent seven points, with Chicago State holding a 20-19 lead after a
Berenice Almeyda kill. But the Wolverines powered ahead with three consecutive points, capped by a Jaysa Funk Stratton ace. After Chicago State picked up a point to make it 22-21 UVU, the Wolverines closed, scoring back-to-back-to-back kills. The run clinched a 25-21 set three win and a match sweep.
Utah Valley's block game keyed the victory — the Wolverines racked up 17 blocks, while the Cougars managed just four. The victors also hit 0.269 more efficiently than Chicago State.
For the second consecutive evening, Feliz led Chicago State in kills, joining Lopez at the top with seven. Jones added six kills, while Almeyda and Severino each tacked on three.
Calderon's three aces led everyone — she was the only player with more than one. Calderon also tallied 12 digs. Freshman
Grace Zambrano, filling in at setter, doled out 23 assists.
"Our serve receive was a lot better than yesterday," Trifonov said. "Our serving was a lot better. Our blocking was better at times. Our defense was better. Our hitting percentage just went down too much."
The Cougars now return to Chicago for their 2021 home opener on March 1 and 2 against Tarleton State. The matches are at 6:00 pm CT on Monday and 1:00 pm CT Tuesday. Both will be streamed on the
WAC Digital Network.
