CHICAGO — Tarleton State completed a two-match sweep over Chicago State volleyball with a 26-24, 19-25, 19-25, 25-16, 15-9 win Tuesday afternoon at the Jacoby Dickens Center in Chicago. With the win, Tarleton improves to 9-7 (5-5 WAC) while Chicago State falls to 0-4, 0-4.
"The kids really showed a lot of fight," head coach Tanio Trifonov said. "But we need to learn how to close. We need to step up in key points. But that match was a huge improvement from what we saw last week. That's the encouraging part."
In a back-and-forth first set, Chicago State held a 24-23 advantage and was serving for the win, but Tarleton earned the point on the potential set-winning rally with a kill, and went on to win on back-to-back Cougars attack errors, 26-24. The Cougars led throughout the first set, winning three of the first four points before Tarleton rallied for a 9-9 tie. The Texans took their first lead and extended the advantage to two, 11-9, before a
Yanlis Feliz kill stopped a three-point Texans run. CSU regained the lead on a
Mesalina Severino kill and
Grace Zambrano service ace for a 13-12 advantage. At that point, the teams exchanged points, leading to six ties and four lead changes. With the scored knotted 22-22, a Tarleton kill gave the Texans a late lead, but the Cougars answered with a Feliz kill and Zambrano ace to set up a set point for Chicago State, 24-23. The Texans rallied for a kill and won on the two attack errors.
The second set mirrored the first at the outset, with several ties and lead changes throughout until Chicago State turned an 8-8 tie into a 10-8 lead on a service ace by
Maria Lopez and a
Nailah Jones block. The Cougars wouldn't trail again. CSU extended the lead to 19-15, then its largest of the set, 23-17, highlighted by a
Berenice Almeyda kill. The Cougars finished off the set with a Lopez kill for the set-two win, 25-19.
The Cougars jumped out early in the third set, winning five of the first eight points highlighted by a pair of Feliz kills. CSU extended the lead to four, 9-5, on an Almeyda and Zambrano double block. The Texans rallied, scoring five of the next seven points to trail by just one, 11-10. Following a Feliz kill, Tarleton scored the next three points for a 13-12 lead. The Cougars countered with a Feliz kill, block assists by Severino and Jones for a 15-13 CSU lead. Tied at 16-16, the Cougars closed out the match with a 9-3 run for a 25-19 win to put Chicago State up 2-1 in the match. The set-clinching run featured kills by Lopez, Jones, two by Feliz, and the set winner by Severino.
Despite five ties, Tarleton only trailed once in a 25-16 fourth-set win. The Cougars took a 2-1 lead on a Severino kill and tied the score for the last time at 12-12. At that point, the Texans reeled off scoring runs of 4-0, 3-0 and 4-0 to set up the decisive fifth set.
As was consistent in a tightly-contested match, scoring went back and forth to start the fifth set with six ties. Chicago State captured the lead on five occasions and the Texans just once before turning a 6-6 tie into a 10-6 lead. 15-9
For the fourth consecutive match, Feliz led Chicago State in kills with 22, followed by Almeyda, who added 13. The Cougars made 13 service errors in the match.
"Every match, we have played better and better, but it wasn't enough," Trifonov said. "But we missed way too many serves. We made way too many concentration errors."
Chicago State will have a bye next week and is scheduled to be back in action March 15 and 16 at Dixie State.
"We know what we need," Trifonov said. "Sometimes, the other team has a little bit more. This will hurt for a while, but we'll get over it."
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