Bloomington, Ind. — The Chicago State women's volleyball team (7-4) took down the Indiana University Hoosiers in a 3-0 clean sweep on Friday morning.
The win marked the Cougars seventh of the season and the second Chicago State win over a Big Ten opponent in the first month of the fall season (men's soccer over Northwestern, August 26).
"We're still finding our identity," head coach Tanio Trifonov said. "Indiana is a very good team. ... And the Big Ten is the best conference in the country, hands-down. So this is a great win for us going into WAC play."
In the first set, the Cougars gained the first point of the match with a spectacular service ace by Nailah Jones, which was followed by a ferocious kill on the Hoosiers side by Breana Edwards which started the set off at a 1-1 tie.
The rest of the set echoed this pattern up until a 9-9 tie in which the Cougars finally clawed an edge and scored four straight points featuring two astonishing kills by Yanlis Feliz, forcing the Hoosiers to take a timeout.
The Cougars came out of the timeout unfazed and scored yet another point which brought them to a five-score streak with a score of 13-9.
The Hoosiers surprisingly came back and matched with the Cougars at a score of 17-17, yet the Cougars never let up and marched on to victory capped off with an attack error by the Hoosiers which gave them the set win at 25-21.
The Cougars headed into set two leading 1-0 in sets, in which both teams once again began with a 1-1 tie.
Following this was another tie at 2-2, suddenly the Cougars erupted for seven points with the Hoosiers only scoring one in between which gave the Cougars a massive early lead at 9-3.
The Hoosiers, much like in the first set, eventually caught up with the Cougars at a 15-15 tie, again with Feilz leading the way.
The set continued on with both teams matching each other point for point, leading to a 25-25 thrilling ending in which a two-point lead was required for the victory.
This led to a 26-26 tie in which the Cougars finally established their superiority and took the set win off of an attack error by the Hoosier's Savannah Kjolhede and a remarkable kill by Mesalina Severino.
The Cougars now led 2-0 and had a clean sweep up for grabs heading into the third set.
Unlike the first two sets which started with ties, the third set began with the Hoosiers taking a 2-0 lead, which quickly grew to a three point lead at 4-1 featuring two service aces.
The Cougars trailed the majority of the set, when suddenly the Cougars clawed their way back at 23-21 trailing only by two, in which the Cougars cemented their victory with a four-score streak at a score of 25-23.
The Cougars successfully completed a clean sweep at 3-0 and earned their first win of the weekend tournament in Bloomington. Feliz lead Chicago State with both 16 kills and 10 digs, while Andrea Calderon tallied 10 digs in the win.
The Cougars next Alabama A&M at 4:00 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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