The Chicago State volleyball team will return to the court Friday, August 26 against Jacksonville State in its first of three matches in the Indiana Invitational on the IU campus in Bloomington, Indiana. The Cougars return many key contributors off last season's record-setting team which accomplished many program firsts, featuring a program-record 17 Division I wins. Outside hitter
Yanlis Feliz earned Chicago State's first AVCA All-American honor while also being recognized as the Western Athletic Conference's Player of the Year while head coach
Tony Trifonov was named the WAC's Coach of the Year. Both honors were the first of their kind for Chicago State.
The Cougars will face tournament host Indiana on August 27. During last year's record-setting season, CSU served notice and set the tone going into conference play with a 3-0 sweep of the Hoosiers in Bloomington.
Following the three-match tournament in Indiana, Chicago State will host their only home matches of the season, welcoming Pacific, Eastern Illinois and UIC on September 1, 2 and 3, respectively, to the Jones Convocation Center.
Chicago State's schedule also features matches against five 2021 NCAA qualifying teams, hosting UIC (Sept. 3) with road matches at Utah Valley (Oct. 6) West Virginia (Oct. 15), Towson (Oct. 23) and Iowa State (Nov. 1).
The Cougars will play 22 matches on the road this season, which includes six neutral-site games in a bid to qualify for postseason play as an independent after leaving the WAC following the conclusion of the last academic year.
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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