Oakland, UIC and Valparaiso Have Successful Friday Nights in Volleyball

Horizon League Volleyball Scoreboard (Nov. 8)
Oakland def., Wright State, 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-15)
UIC def., Youngstown State, 3-1 (17-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-23)
Valparaiso def., Cleveland State, 3-0 (28-26, 25-21, 25-17)

Oakland 3, Wright State 0
Jessica Dood hit an amazing .600 and recorded 12 kills while Amanda Baker recorded three service aces as Oakland (13-14, 7-5 HL) defeated Wright State (6-14, 0-12 HL) in three straight sets. The victory came with set scores of 25-11, 25-17 and 25-15.

"We played really well," commented head coach Rob Beam. "It's a big part of the process of growing through the season with a young group. I'm proud of the team and obviously earning a bid to the Horizon League Tournament is a huge step forward for us."

Rallying behind Dood's spectacular hitting efficiency, Oakland recorded a .333 hitting percentage for the match compared to a Wright State .067. Other notables for Oakland were the offensive efforts by Baker with seven kills (.429) and Brooke Wadsworth with four block assists.

The first set got off to an extremely quick start for Oakland, taking an 8-2 lead followed by a 14-3 lead. OU was relentless in the early goings and cruised to a 25-11 victory to set the tone for the night. The Golden Grizzlies were unable to be as dominating in the second set as Wright State would keep the set in much closer contention. Still, Oakland led the entire set and recorded its best offense with .364. A kill by Allia Knight and a bad set by Wright State would end the set, 25-17 and Oakland would lead the match two sets to none.

The final affair of the match showed a brief Wright State lead off the bat but Oakland would not allow that to last long. Tied at 5-5, the Grizzlies went on a six-point tear to take command of the set. Melissa Deatsch would record the final kill of the match in a 25-15 win for the sweep.

Ellen Senf led Wright State's effort with nine kills, while Heidi Splinter had a team-high 10 digs.

UIC 3, Youngstown State 1
The UIC volleyball team captured the final three sets of a 3-1 home win (17-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-23) over Youngstown State Friday night inside the Flames Athletic Center. UIC (8-19, 3-8 Horizon League) hit over .200 as a team (.206) for the first time since Sept. 21.

Over the final three sets, UIC hit at a .255 clip and held Youngstown State (14-12, 6-5 Horizon League) to a .116 attack percentage. Overall, the Flames totaled 50 kills, eight blocks and six service aces against the Penguins.

The first set was tied at 8-8 following a kill by Olivia Desormey but Youngstown State put down 13 kills on only 29 attempts in a 25-17 victory. The Flames dominated the next two sets as the Penguins never held a lead.

The final set was tightly contested as it featured 10 ties and seven lead changes. Kara Johnson’s 12th kill of the match tied the score at 19-19. With Tracy Friel serving, the Flames reeled off three straight points and held a 22-19 advantage following Friel’s second ace of the match. Youngstown State trimmed the UIC lead to 24-23 but a Penguin attack error ended the match and gave the Flames their third Horizon League victory of the season.

Freshman Kara Johnson led the Flames with 13 kills on 27 attempts for a season-high .333 attack percentage. Johnson’s performance is her 12th double-digit effort of the season. She put down four kills on four swings in the third set and six on 12 attempts in the final frame.

Junior Sara Sternard had an all-around solid performance with 11 kills, five blocks and three aces. The three aces are a career-high while the five blocks ties a season-high. She put down five kills on 10 attempts in the fourth set.

Senior MaryKate Imrie had 37 assists, 13 digs, a career-high four blocks and a service ace. It is her team-high fourth double-double of the season and the first UIC double-double since Oct. 12, when Imrie accomplished the feat at Youngstown State.

Imrie passed the 1,000-career dig mark (1,005) and owns 3,501 career assists. She needs 53 more assists to move past Carlyn Fisk (3,553 - 1988-91) into third all-time in program history.

Junior Molly McCoy put down 10 kills on 32 attempts for her first double-digit effort since Sept. 21. McCoy, who owns 11 double-digit efforts this season, had five kills on nine attempts in the second set.

Junior Maggie Strus compiled a match-high 18 digs and owns 1,194 career digs. She needs 16 more digs to enter the program's Top 10.

Redshirt sophomore Tracy Friel picked up two aces to raise her season total to 24. She added 11 digs for her seventh double-digit performance of the season and first since Oct. 11. Senior Justine Garcia had nine digs to raise her career total to 998.

Valparaiso 3, Cleveland State 0
Sharp execution on both sides of the ball led to a 3-0 (28-26, 25-21, 25-17) victory for the Valparaiso volleyball team over Cleveland State in Horizon League action at the ARC Friday afternoon.

The Crusaders limited errors offensively, committing just 12 attack errors against 47 kills to swing at a .297 clip for the match. Senior middle Ellen Vanden Berg (Little Chute, Wis./Little Chute) led the way with 14 kills on .464 hitting, while senior outside Sarah Dooms (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) picked up 12 kills on .290 hitting. Junior middle Morgan Beil (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette) added six kills on just 14 swings as well.

Then defensively, Valpo continued its strong play at the net, registering 12.5 total team blocks in the sweep of the Vikings. As she has over the last few weeks, Vanden Berg was the leader on the block, tallying six rejections, while senior right side Janelle Hobbs (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) and redshirt junior right side Kelsey Victor (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) each recorded five blocks.

When the ball did get through the block, the Crusader back line, led by the play of freshman Morganne Longoria (Burlington, Wis./Burlington) was there to pick it up. Longoria tallied 25 digs in the three-set win as the Crusaders totaled 57 digs on the match, limiting Cleveland State to just a .120 attack percentage.

"We worked a lot this week on our offense, so it was nice to see us hit at such a high percentage for the match," said Crusader head coach Carin Avery. "Then defensively, we talked this week about how improving both our blocking and our digging correlate to winning. Even though we started out a bit slow today, I felt we did a great all-around job from the late stages of the first set all the way through the end of the match."

Valpo took a while to get started on Friday, as the Vikings led most of the first set and were actually up 21-16 late. An 8-2 run gave the Crusaders set point at 24-23, but CSU saved that chance, and following a kill by freshman Rachel Bruinsma (New Era, Mich./Western Michigan Christian), the Vikings staved off another set point, and then claimed the lead at 26-25.

Vanden Berg stepped up with a big kill out of the middle to make it 26-all and keep the opening frame going, and then the Crusader block made its presence felt to close out the set. First it was Vanden Berg and Bruinsma combining on a rejection to give Valpo its third set point chance, and the senior from Little Chute then paired with Hobbs on a big block to make it 1-0 Crusaders.

The second set saw the Crusaders maintain a slim lead entering the late stages, as Valpo led just 19-18 before a four-point spurt put it out of reach. Victor and freshman Emily Campbell (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) each had kills during the run, while Victor and Vanden Berg were both in on blocks for the other two points as well. A termination by Vanden Berg eventually ended the set, sending Valpo into the in-game break up 2-0.

Cleveland State led early in set three, but that didn't last long, as senior Ariel Cudney (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte) stepped back and served during a 7-0 Crusader run that gave Valpo the lead for good at 11-5. Fittingly enough, the match would end on one last block from Vanden Berg and Victor.

Maggie Hannon totaled 11 kills in the losing effort for Cleveland State (13-11, 3-8 Horizon). Nikki Holmes led the Vikings with 17 digs.