MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Chicago State volleyball team fell, three sets to none, to West Virginia Saturday on the road. Yanlis Feliz led the Cougars with 13 kills.
Set One: West Virginia 25, Chicago State 21
- The Cougars fell into an early 7-3 hole thanks to a Mountaineer middle led by Tierney Jackson, who tallied back-to-back blocks early
- Feliz smashed a kill a few points later to make it 10-6, West Virginia
- The Cougars stayed within four points at 15-11 after a Skye Stokes service error
- Late kills by Yunju Lee and Whitney Barnes kept the lead at four, 20-16
- The Mountaineers pulled ahead, 23-17, in response
- The Cougars won a stretch four of five points, keyed by an Andrea Calderon service ace
- West Virginia held on for a 25-21 set one win
Set Two: West Virginia 25, Chicago State 22
- In set two, Chicago State stormed out to a 4-2 lead on kills from Mesalina Severino, Julieta Sandez and Berenice Almeyda
- West Virginia responded to force a 4-4 tie and, later, ballooned that to a 10-6 lead after a Barnes attack error
- Chicago State won the first point after a time out to make it 10-7 on a Barnes block
- West Virginia rattled off five consecutive points to lead 15-7
- Down the stretch, Feliz, with two kills, led a 4-0 run to pull to within three at 17-14
- The Cougars then tied it up after another 4-0 run, making it 18-18 down the stretch
- Moments later, with the score tied at 20, West Virginia rattled off three straight points to take a 23-20 lead on a Kamiah Gibson service ace
- The Mountaineers held on to win the second set, 25-22
Set Three:
- The Cougars stormed out to a 10-4 lead to start the third set, forcing an early West Virginia timeout. Sandez and Feliz led the charge
- Sandez picked back up with a kill after the break to make it 11-4
- West Virginia stormed back to pull to within five at 19-14
- The Mountaineers dominated down the stretch, ending on a 9-1 run to win the third set, 25-21, and sweep the match
The Cougars next face off with Bellarmine at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
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. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. 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, also making 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. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year. During that same season, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
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