CHICAGO — The Chicago State women's volleyball team (9-6, 1-2 WAC) fell to the Utah Valley Wolverines (6-8, 1-2 WAC), three sets to one, on Thursday night at the Jones Convocation Center: 25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 25-17.
Yanlis Feliz led all players with 20 kills, but 26 attack errors plagued the Cougars in the loss.
To start off the first set, the Cougars quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead off of a ferocious kill and also a mesmerizing service ace by Berenice Almeyda.
However, Utah Valley quickly bounced back with five points while Chicago State could only produce two points which saw the Wolverines claim a 5-4 lead.
The set echoed this point-for-point style of play up to an 11-11 tie.
The Wolverines suddenly erupted with a three-score streak which forced the Cougars to a timeout now being down 14-11. Utah Valley came out of the timeout unfazed and refueled, cruising their way to a 25-18 set win capped off with a spectacular kill by Jules Fink.
In the second set, the Wolverines came in hot off their set win and gained an early 2-0 lead with an astonishing kill by Kazna Tanuvasa and an attack error by Chicago State.
The Cougars quickly clawed their way back and put up six points featuring kills by Yanlis Feliz, Mesalina Severino and Ezgi Dokuzlar, while the Wolverines only managed to score two in between, bringing the store 6-4.
The rest of the set echoed the same style throughout as neither team was able to pull away. This brought us to a 23-23 tie in which Chicago State finally imposed their strength and took home the set win at 25-23, the final point being scored by none other than Feliz. The Cougars finished the set on a 4-0 run.
Heading into the third set, the Cougars and the Wolverines were then tied at 1-1 in sets overall.
Set three began with a 1-1 tie as Chicago State committed an attack error and in response struck down a kill courtesy of Ece Erol.
It wasn't until a 10-10 tie between the teams that the Wolverines stepped up and scored six points while the Cougars only scored three, giving them a three-point lead at 16-13. Utah Valley never let go of this lead and persisted its way to a comfortable six-point lead win at 25-19, now leading 2-1 in sets overall.
In the fourth and final set of the match, the Wolverines wasted no time and very early on jumped to an impressive 7-3 lead off of kills by Tanusava and Kalea Kennedy.
Utah Valley, very much like in sets one and three, never looked back and easily dominated the set with a final score of 25-17, taking the win with a 3-1 win in sets overall.
The Cougars next face Dixie State at the Jones Convocation Center on October 2 at 1:00 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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