Horizon League Volleyball Scoreboard (Sept. 25)
Cleveland State 3, Green Bay 0
UIC 3, Wright State 1
Valparaiso 3, Northern Kentucky 1
Youngstown State 3, Milwaukee 0
Cleveland State 3, Green Bay 0
During the opening set, both teams traded points until the 9-9 mark when Cleveland State went on a 5-0 run to gain a 14-9 advantage following a block from Gina Kilner and Alexis Middlebrooks. The Vikings were then able to hold their lead for the remainder of the set, closing the frame on a Christina Toth kill.
The second set was much of the same, as the two teams battled back and forth throughout the first part of the frame, until Cleveland State gained an 18-12 advantage after a 6-0 run that included kills from Aaliyah Slappy and Toth and a pair of Slappy/Rachel Stover blocks. The Vikings then held the advantage for the rest of the set, closing the frame with back-to-back points from a Toth kill and a Kilner service ace.
During the final frame, Cleveland State was able to get out to an early 8-4 lead, and controlled play for the remainder of the set. The Vikings held a 15-11 advantage before Green Bay came back within one point at 16-15, but Cleveland State responded with a Middlebrooks kill to regain a multi-point advantage. The Vikings then held the lead for the remainder of the frame, ending the match with four straight points for the straight-set victory.
UIC 3, Wright State 1
UIC started Horizon League play on the right note Friday night with an impressive 3-1 (25-20, 25-16, 28-30, 25-22) win away from home over Wright State.
UIC (7-7, 1-0 Horizon League) won the opening set 25-20 before taking a 2-0 lead for the match with a dominant 25-16 win in the second. The Flames dropped a tight third game, 30-28, but they took care of business in set four with a 25-22 victory to pick up a coveted road win to ignite conference play. Wright State fell to 11-5 and 0-1 in league matches.
"Any time that you can pick up a conference game away from home, you're thrilled," said UIC head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley. "Wright State has had a great season so far and we knew we were going to be tested by them all night long. We were able to rise to the challenge and fight to get back on track."
The match featured 26 tie scores and at least five in each game. It also saw nine lead changes, however the Flames never trailed in the second stanza.
WSU entered the match leading the Horizon League in opponent's hitting percentage (.176), but the Flames hit .268 as a team Friday night with 61 kills. It marks the fourth time this season that UIC notched 60-or-more kills and the third time in the last five matches. UIC setter Nicole Johnson was instrumental in running a balanced offensive attack as she helped five different attackers post at least seven kills in the win. She notched 53 assists on the night.
Senior Stephenee Yancy buried a match-high 20 kills for the Flames at a clip of .385 (20k-5e-39ta). It marked the fourth time this season that the Aroma Park, Ill., native connected for at least 20 terminations. Joining Yancy in double figures were junior Alyssa Ehrhardt with 15 kills and classmate Kara Johnson, who added 11. Casey Harris chipped in with seven kills on 10 swings with only one miscue and Kyisha Hunt clubbed eight kills at a mark of .357.
Ehhardt and libero Bridget Powell each recorded a match-high 17 kills. For Ehrhardt, that meant she achieved her team-best fifth double-double of the season. She also posted two service aces in the win. Tracy Friel also bolstered the back row with 11 digs against the Raiders.
The Flames secured double-digit blocks for only the third time this season as they stuffed 10 WSU attempts. Yancy led the squad with six, while Hunt added five and Harris picked up four.
Valparaiso 3, Northern Kentucky 1
The Valparaiso University volleyball team proved to be an unwelcome guest in Northern Kentucky’s first-ever home event in Horizon League play in any sport, as the Crusaders defeated the Norse, 3-1 (25-15, 32-30, 20-25, 25-23) Friday night in Highland Heights, Ky.
The offense ran mainly through the Crusaders’ starting outside hitters on Friday, and the pair of junior Emily Campbell (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) and sophomore Allison Ketcham (Mishawaka, Ind./Marian) both stepped up to the task. Campbell recorded a season-high 20 kills, 18 of which came in the first three frames. Meanwhile, Ketcham – who set a new career best last time out at Indiana State with 18 kills – matched that mark Friday evening against the Norse, tallying 18 terminations.
The first set came easy to the Crusaders, who went on an 11-3 run early in the frame and hit .400 en route to taking a one-set lead. But the second frame would be a dogfight. Valpo trailed late 21-14 before rallying to force extra points. The two squads proceeded to trade the lead in extra points, with both sides earning multiple set points along the way. Finally, at 30-30 following a kill from junior Jamie Lacheta (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw), an NKU attack error gave Valpo another set point, and redshirt freshman Kayla Currier (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) put away an overpass to make it a 2-0 Crusader lead.
Valpo led 14-10 midway through set three in search of the sweep, but NKU utilized an 11-2 run to pull ahead and eventually force a fourth set. The fourth set proved to be tight throughout, as neither squad ever had better than a three-point lead. But with the score tied at 23-23, freshman Lizzie Zaleski (Oak Lawn, Ill./Marist) came up with a big kill from the right side to give the Crusaders match point and Valpo would close out the match thanks to a hitting error by the Norse.
Contributing to the production from the outside hitters Friday was freshman Katherine Carlson (Lake Orion, Mich./Notre Dame Prep), who made her first appearance of the night in the fourth set and tallied four kills on just six attacks. Sophomore Taylor Graboski (Upper Sandusky, Ohio/Upper Sandusky) added to the offensive attack with an efficient performance out of the middle, hitting .450 with 10 kills on 20 swings. Senior Kelsey Berrington (Britton, Mich./Tecumseh) dished out a season-best 52 assists in the win.
Defensively, Valpo kept plenty of rallies alive on Friday, and it was a team effort on the back line to do so. Notably, junior libero Morganne Longoria (Burlington, Wis./Burlington) recorded 22 digs, giving her 1,271 digs for her career and tying her for 10th-most in the category in a career in Crusader history. Berrington set a new career high and led Valpo with 23 digs, while both Ketcham (22 digs) and Campbell (12 digs) finished the night with double-doubles as well. Currier and Lacheta combined for four of Valpo’s six team blocks.
Northern Kentucky (5-8, 0-1 Horizon) was paced by 20 kills from Haley Libs. Jayden Julien posted a career-best 26 digs for the Norse to lead all players.
Youngstown State 3, Milwaukee 0
The Youngstown State volleyball team notched 12 blocks, and three Penguins had at least nine kills in a sweep of Milwaukee on Friday evening at Beeghly Center. The set scores were 25-16, 32-30, 25-17.
Lori Vanbeek had 10 kills in 20 attempts and added three blocks, and Lauren Thompson was also efficient with nine kills in 17 swings. She tied for match-high honors with five blocks, and Nikki Thompson was the top defender with 19 digs. Val Jeffery ran the offense well with 40 assists.
The 12 blocks were the second-most for the Penguins this season, and they helped the Penguins hold Milwaukee to a negative attack percentage in two of the three sets.
"I thought our team played extremely hard and with a lot of energy tonight," YSU head coach Mark Hardaway said. "We took advantage of all the opportunities Milwaukee gave us. We put a lot of pressure on them, and our team followed our game plan to the letter tonight."
Kaisa Mattson had a match-best 11 kills, and Maddie Williams had nine kills for the Panthers, who beat Horizon League preseason favorite Oakland on Thursday. No other UWM player had more than four kills, and setter Kayla Price was the only Panther to have an attack percentage higher than .200.
Sarah Varcolla had back-to-back solo blocks early in the first set as YSU scored 11 of the first 14 points of the match. The Penguins had more blocks than the Panthers had kills when the score was 16-6, and YSU held UWM to a minus-.056 attack percentage in the set.
There were 11 ties and four lead changes in the second set, and both teams fought off set points before YSU finally won at 32-30. Vanbeek and Lauren Thompson combined for 11 kills in 17 attempts without committing an error in the set. Youngstown State led 23-19 following an ace by Nikki Thompson, but Milwaukee scored the next four points to tie the set at 23-23. Aly Ryan's kill gave YSU a sideout, but UWM scored the next two points to set up its first of three set point chances. Vanbeek had kills to give YSU three set points, and an error by Mattson gave YSU a 31-30 advantage. Ryan and Jessie Gerig, who was playing in the front row because the Penguins ran out of subs, combined to block Sammi Herron to finally end the set.
YSU scored four straight points to go up 8-4 in the third set, and it did not trail again. Milwaukee got within one at 12-11, but Youngstown State went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead 18-12. The closest UWM got was 18-14.
