EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Chicago St. lost its match to SIUE 3-0 on Friday at First Community Arena. CSU was held to 22 kills and a .106 hitting percentage, compared with 41 kills and a .375 percentage for SIUE.
The Cougars got back to 4-4 in the opening set when
Tenese Buttry served an ace and SIUE committed an attack error, and
Kristine Bakhad's kill later tied it at 5-5 before the teams reached 6-6 on an SIUE service error. SIUE moved ahead 10-6 behind two Ashlyn Schulze service aces and a Maddie Determan kill, with
Nayella George stopping that stretch on a kill from
Eliza Covrig. After
Camryn McCollum's kill made it 14-9, SIUE scored five straight points, including a Kinley Quast ace and a Georgia Bresnahan kill, to push the set to 19-9. CSU got late kills from Graci Littlejohn,
Nina Mitchell and George, but SIUE closed the set 25-15 on Kennedy Pike's kill.
Chicago State took a 2-0 lead on SIUE attack errors and went back in front 3-2 on a Bakhad kill, but SIUE took the next five points, including two Kinley Quast aces and kills from Georgia Bresnahan and Kennedy Pike, to move ahead 7-3. The Cougars pulled within one at 12-11 on a Littlejohn kill and a George ace before SIUE answered with three straight kills by Vienna Elliott, Pike and Elliott again to build a 15-11 lead. The gap was 18-15 after a Mitchell kill and a Bresnahan attack error, but SIUE moved to 20-15 before a George kill, then reached 22-16 on consecutive Maddie Determan kills. CSU cut the deficit to 22-19 with a
Hailee Collins ace and a block by George and Littlejohn, but SIUE scored the final three points to take the set 25-19.
SIUE put the Cougars in an early 3-0 hole with two Kennedy Pike kills around a Sophie Robinson service ace before Littlejohn answered with a kill from Collins. Chicago State used kills from Bakhad,
Jenesis Perrin and George to stay within 10-7, but SIUE scored the next four points, including a Teagan Sullivan ace, to move ahead 14-7. Mitchell delivered consecutive kills for CSU to cut the margin to 16-11, before SIUE took the next four points behind kills from Ashlyn Schulze and Karli Mann and a Georgia Bresnahan ace.
Rayon Thigpen's kill made it 20-12, but SIUE scored the final five points and closed the set 25-12 on Mann's kill from Ally Hughes.
George led Chicago State with six kills and 7.5 points, adding one ace and one block assist. Littlejohn converted all three of her attacks for three kills and added two block assists. Collins finished with a team-high 10 assists, one ace and three digs. Bakhad added four kills, nine assists, four digs and one block assist.
Up next, CSU volleyball team will face UAPB on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 11:30 a.m.
