CHICAGO — The Chicago State women's volleyball team (0-3, 0-3 WAC) lost, 3-0, to Tarleton (8-7, 4-5 WAC) Monday evening in its home-opening match of the season. Tarleton won the first set 25-19 in a set which featured three lead changes, led wire-to-wire in a tight 25-22 second set and came back from an early two-point deficit for it largest set win of the match, 25-16.
"We had our chances," head coach Tanio Trifonov said. "We played defense a lot better. Serve recieve was outstanding. We can see leaps and bounds of improvement, but the lack of matches played shows."
During the opening set at the Jacoby Dickens Center, Tarleton reeled off the first three points of the match before
Paola Fragalle registered her first kill of the evening to stop the Texans' run. Following a Tarleton point,
Nailah Jones notched three of the Cougars next four kills to cut the lead to 6-5. Then, a
Maria Lopez service ace knotted the score at six the first of six ties in the first set. Tarleton eventually took a one-point lead, 15-14, and didn't trail again. Chicago State pulled to within two several times but the Texans extended a 20-18 lead and scored five of the last six points for the 25-19 first set win.
The two teams exchanged pairs of points to open the second set. The score was knotted at four following a
Yanlis Feliz kill. Tarleton then reeled off the next four points to extend the lead to 8-4 before a Lopez kill stopped the run. CSU then closed to within one, 10-9, before another Texans run, this time six consecutive points for a 16-9 lead. The Cougars countered with kills by Jones and Feliz and a service ace by Fragalle to close the gap to 16-12. The Texans extended the lead to six, 20-14, before CSU scored five of the next six to cut the lead to 21-19. A Jones kill pulled CSU to within one, 22-21. Following a
Berenice Almeyda kill, the Cougars again trailed by just a point, 23-22. Tarleton closed out the second set with a kill and a CSU attack error for a 25-22 second-set win.
In the third set, Chicago State jumped out to a 3-1 lead before the Texans claimed the next three points to reclaim a one-point lead, 4-3. Following a Mesalino Severino kill for the Cougars, the Texans won four of the next five points for an 8-5 advantage. CSU cut the gap to two on three occasions and the score was 10-8 Texans following a Feliz kill. At that point, Tarleton went on a 9-2 run to extend the lead to 19-10, its largest advantage of the match, and rode that margin to a 25-16 win.
For the third consecutive match, Feliz led Chicago State in kills with 10, followed by Jones who added nine.
"We need a few more matches," Trifonov said. "Every set, we're competing. We have our opportunities. These are winnable matches, if you look at it in hindsight. The goal is to continue improving."
The same two teams will face off tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the second of two meetings. The action will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network with
Sam Brief calling the action.
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