Women's Volleyball Wins Season Opener 3-2 at NIU

The Chicago State women's volleyball team played their season opener against the NIU Huskies Friday night in DeKalb and pulled out a 3-2 win. The Cougars never trailed in a first-set win, dropped the second and rallied for a 28-26 third-set victory. The Huskies won the fourth set 25-12 to set up the decisive fifth set where CSU pulled out a 16-14 win to earn the match victory. Yanlis Feliz led the team with 21 kills followed by Patrycja Lagida with 15. Wiktoria Zagumny contributed 45 assists and ranked third on the team with 13 digs. Andrea Calderon led CSU in digs with 16 followed by Feliz with 15.

Set 1 - Chicago State 25, NIU 21

• The Cougars came out hot with a 3-0 run with kills from Julieta Sandez and Mesalina Severino
• NIU stopped the run but CSU won five of the next six points and led 8-2 which forced a Huskies timeout
• NIU bounced back and went on a 6-1 run to only trail by two, 10-8
• Both teams then went on several scoring runs and Chicago State's lead shrunk to 22-21
• The Cougars finished off the set with a 3-0 run due to attack errors by the Huskies and the Cougars earned a 25-21 first-set win to go up 1-0

Set 2 - NIU 25, Chicago State 19            

•  The teams began the set trading points and the score was tied 6-6
• The Huskies broke out with a 5-0 run to now lead by 11-6
• The Cougars produced several small scoring runs but were unable to overtake the Huskies as NIU took the set with a 25-19 win

Set 3 - Chicago State 28, NIU 26

• The Cougars managed to jump out to a 2-0 lead with a service ace and a kill from Yanlis Feliz
• The Huskies answered with a pair of points to tie it up 2-2
• This ensued a trend for the whole set as both teams went back and forth leading to a 25-25 score
• Chicago State then managed to pull out a 3-1 run with three straight kills from Feliz to close out the set and take a 2-1 lead with a final score of 28-26

Set 4 - NIU 25, Chicago State 12

• The Huskies bounced back and started off with a 5-2 lead, forcing the Cougars to a timeout
• Coming out of the timeout, the Huskies continued their run with another 5-0 to go up 10-2
• NIU took advantage of this early lead and dominated the set with a 25-12 win to even the series 2-2 and force a fifth set

Set 5 - Chicago State 16, NIU 14

• Both teams once again began with a 1-1 score, which led to a very tight scoring set
• The Huskies and Cougars found themselves tied 14-14 when the Huskies committed two straight errors as the Cougars earned the 3-2 victory with a final set score of 16-14

The Cougars will return home on Sunday to face off against the Huskies once again at 6 PM.