Volleyball Scoreboard (Oct. 17)
Green Bay 3, Oakland 1
UIC 3, Valparaiso 1
Milwaukee 3, Wright State 1
Youngstown State 3, Cleveland State 1
Green Bay 3, Oakland 1
Despite having a depleted roster missing two starters and playing against league-leading Oakland (12-9, 4-2 HL), the Green Bay volleyball team returned home in winning fashion on Friday night at the Kress Center, defeating the visiting Golden Grizzlies 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-10, 25-23).
Junior Taylor Kasal (Westmont, Ill.) and freshman Beth Kuske (Germantown, Wis.) each tallied 16 kills to lead the Phoenix (3-14, 1-5 HL), with Kasal adding 10 digs for her sixth double-double of the season.
Kasal carried the offense through the opening two sets, including totaling six alone as the Phoenix won the opening set 25-22. The junior had 10 kills as the two teams went to intermission tied at 1-1 after Oakland took the second set, 25-22.
Kuske was the dominant force in sets three and four, tallying nine kills in the sets on just 21 swings without committing an error. In set three, Kuske had four kills as Green Bay hit an astounding .414 as a team (13 kills, 1 error) en route to a dominant 25-10 victory.
The freshman had five kills in the final set, including putting away the match with kills on the final two points. Her kill on match point not only earned the win for her team, but also gave her a season-high kill total.
Playing without starters Abby Jeffcoat (Racine, Wis.) and Shannon Hurley (Connellsville, Pa.), head coach Sean Burdette put two freshmen in his lineup to make their first career start. Lydia DeWeese (Columbus, Ohio) played in just her seventh match of the season while Kayla Pfeiffer (Lockport, Ill.) made her collegiate debut. DeWeese had five kills and two blocks while Pfeiffer, who is listed as a setter, totaled three kills and 11 digs playing as a hitter.
Junior Emily Riese (Fond du Lac, Wis.) directed the Phoenix offense to a hitting percentage of .237 (52 kills, 16 errors). The setter also added 11 digs and three service aces.
Defensively, Green Bay held a strong-hitting offense Oakland team at bay thanks to nine total blocks and five players with double-digit dig numbers. Sophomore Megan Powers (Glendale, Ariz.) had seven blocks (1 solo, 6 assists) and junior libero Jillian Bauer (Verona, Wis.) had 28 digs, including 13 in the final set.
UIC 3, Valparaiso 1
The UIC volleyball team (10-12, 4-3 HL) concluded the first half of Horizon League play with a 3-1 victory (27-25, 23-25, 31-29, 25-23) at Valparaiso (17-4, 4-3 HL) Friday night. The Flames have won three straight Horizon League contests and sit in fourth place in the conference standings at the midway point.
UIC overcame 18 Valparaiso blocks with 70 kills and a .224 attack percentage while holding the Crusaders to 54 kills and a .182 attack percentage. The Flames have put down at least 70 kills on five occasions this season after one time in 2013.
Valparaiso was picked to finish second in the Horizon League's preseason poll and started the season 14-1. UIC's last win at Valparaiso came on Oct. 11, 2008.
Junior Stephenee Yancy, the Horizon League's reigning Co-Offensive Player of the Week, put down a match-high 25 kills on 45 attempts for a strong .422 attack percentage. She had seven kills on 12 attempts in the third set and eight on nine swings in the decisive fourth set. Yancy also added two blocks and owns 40 blocks over her last eight matches.
Yancy has put down double-digit kills in all 22 matches and owns four 20-plus kill performances. Her last 20-kill effort came against East Carolina on Sept. 19.
Redshirt freshman Nicole Johnson dished out 59 assists for her eighth 50-plus assist effort. She also had seven digs and two kills on five attempts. Johnson last recorded over 50 assists against East Carolina on Sept. 19.
Yancy's 25 kills and Johnson's 59 assists are the most by any Horizon League player during conference play. Johnson (995 assists) and Yancy (363 kills) sit first and sixth, respectively, in the nation's statistical rankings.
Sophomore Kara Johnson had 17 kills and 12 digs to collect her team-high 11th double-double. She had six kills on 16 attempts in the first set and five on 11 swings in the third set. Johnson owns 15 double-doubles in her career.
Freshman Allie O'Reilly had a match-high 16 digs and the Flames' lone service ace of the night. O'Reilly compiled 10 digs in the long first set and has seven double-digit dig performances this season. She also owns four aces over the last three contests.
Senior Molly McCoy had nine kills and 13 digs for her third double-digit dig performance over the last four matches. She is averaging 3.29 digs per set over the last four contests after 0.63 per set in the first 18 contests of the season.
Sophomore Casey Harris added nine kills and three blocks. Due to injury, Harris played in only five sets over the first 16 matches of the season. However, she has started the last six contests and has collected 14 total blocks.
Senior Maggie Strus collected 13 digs to add to her program-record total of 1,567. Meanwhile, senior Sara Jo Sternard (953 career kills) moved closer to joining UIC's 1,000 Kills Club with eight kills.
UIC put down 21 kills in a 27-25 first set victory, which featured eight lead changes. Valpo tied the score at 25-25 before an Emily Campbell attack error and Kara Johnson's sixth kill of the set put UIC up 1-0.
UIC led 23-20 in the second set on Sternard's fourth kill of the set before Valpo scored the final five points to tie the match at 1-1. The Crusaders hit at a .275 clip with 17 kills in the 25-23 victory.
The third set was tied at 29-29 before kills from Nicole Johnson and Kara Johnson allowed UIC to take a 2-1 lead. The Flames had 19 kills, three blocks and a service ace in the set victory, which featured 16 ties.
UIC pulled away from an 18-18 tie in the final set by holding Valpo to only 12 kills and a .121 attack percentage in a 25-23 win. Kara Johnson ended the match with her 17th kill of the night.
Milwaukee 3, Wright State 1
Kayla Price dished out a season-high 54 assists and Julie Kolinske tallied a game-high 25 kills to help lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Wright State Friday night from the Klotsche Center.
Milwaukee (11-9, 5-1 Horizon) remains perfect at home with the win, moving to 8-0 this season on its home court after the hard-fought 25-21, 25-22, 14-25, 25-22 win.
Wright State (3-17, 0-6 Horizon) was very efficient on the night, committing just 11 errors on the night.
But Milwaukee received contributions from seemingly everyone on the court, including another double-double by sophomore Myanna Ruiz, registering 19 digs and 11 kills.
Price also recorded a double-double with 12 digs to go with her assist count and Nicole Latzig was key off the bench, hitting .667 with eight kills.
"We had to really earn that one," Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson said. "Wright State played really well. They didn't make a lot of mistakes and we did, so we had to get some guts and work it out. I was really proud of the team because it was definitely a team effort for us to work it out and be able to win in four.
"It's a win. Wins are hard in this conference. Everybody is playing really hard against us because we are the team to beat, so I was really proud of the team for being able to push them back and be able to come out of the W."
After trailing early in the first set, Milwaukee ripped off five-straight points, highlighted by back-to-back aces by Maggie Dunbar to take the lead at 8-6 and never look back. A Kolinske kill followed by a WSU error stretched the Panther lead to 20-15 and it was Kolinske again with the kill to close out the first set for Milwaukee.
UWM had to battle in the second. After an early 6-2 lead, Wright State scored six-straight to claim an 8-6 edge. Milwaukee continued to keep its poise, slowly working back and finally grabbing the lead at 21-20 after forcing an error. From there it was all Milwaukee, wrapping up the set on a block by Dunbar and Kaisa Mattson.
The Raiders came out strong in the third set and quickly won their first set. WSU hit .500 and forced 10 Panther errors to bring the match back to 2-1.
Milwaukee responded right out of the gates in the fourth with a pair of service aces by Ruiz. Wright State refused to go away quietly, even grabbing a 20-19 lead late. But UWM again showed their fight, rattling off six of the final eight points, capped by back-to-back kills by Kolinske to seal the win.
Youngstown State 3, Cleveland State 1
The Youngstown State volleyball team stayed hot offensively and won for the fourth straight match, beating rival Cleveland State in four sets on Friday evening at the Woodling Gymnasium. The set scores were 24-26, 25-22, 26-24, 25-15.
The win improves the Penguins' record to 14-8 overall and 5-2 in Horizon League play, which is currently a half game behind league-leading Milwaukee in the conference standings. Cleveland State is now 10-10 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
Youngstown State posted a .295 attack percentage against the Vikings, who were holding opponents to a .177 mark over their first 19 matches. Five different Penguins had at least eight kills, and Sam Brown had a double-double with 13 kills and 10 digs. Aly Ryan had 10 kills in 14 attempts for an impressive .714 attack percentage while adding five blocks. Setter Val Jeffery, the defending Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week, finished with 49 assists, including 19 in the first set. Nikki Thompson, the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week, had 14 digs.
Grace Kauth led Cleveland State with a match-high 15 kills. The Vikings hit .341 in the first set but just .089 over the final three.
Cleveland State out-blocked YSU 4-0 in the first set and scored the final three points of the set to go up 1-0 in the match. The Penguins had 20 kills in the set, including six apiece from Ryan and Watson, but they could never pull away from the Vikings. The largest lead for either team in the set was two, and there were 16 ties in the set.
Lexi Egler had five kills for YSU in the second set, and her fifth capped a 3-0 run that gave YSU a 21-16 advantage. Lauren Thompson put the Penguins ahead 24-19, and she had another kill to finish off the set at 25-22.
There were 15 ties and seven lead changes in the third set, and YSU flipped the script from the first set by scoring the final three points to win 26-24. On Cleveland State's set point, Ryan and Lauren Thompson blocked Ally Beck, and an attack error gave YSU a set point. Brown delivered with her third kill of the set to put the Penguins up 2-1 in the match.
YSU then scored six straight points behind Jessie Gerig's serve to go up 8-3 in the fourth set, and Cleveland State got no closer than four the rest of the way.
After being out-blocked 4-0 in the opening set, YSU held a 9-4 edge over the final three sets.
