CHICAGO, Ill. -- The University of Chicago volleyball team won its eighth-straight home match with a 3-1 victory over Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday.
The No. 14-ranked Maroons improved to 5-1 while the Titans fell to 1-4.
Chicago started the first set by hitting right through and over the block, and IWU struggled mightily with its serve reception and digging. The hosts went up 12-7 on three-straight kills by Morgan Clark and kept running a successful attack to expand the lead to 17-8. Chicago won the set 25-11.
Morgan Barry scored a pair of kills to open the second set for the Maroons. But the Titans bounced back to tie the score at 9-9 and eventually took the lead 13-12. The deficit was short lived as Chicago began taking good swings on offense once again with contributions from Clark and Caroline Brander. The Maroons showed their serving prowess, winning 11 of the next 14 points to go up big and finish off the set 25-18.
The third set was more of the same. Chicago was tough on the blocks and Maggie Vaughn collected some kills from her middle blocker position. When a timeout was called, the Maroons owned a 10-3 lead.
However, IWU began to find its groove and scored the next five points in a row. The Titans captured the lead at 20-18 and weathered a late rally to win the set 25-23.
The Maroons got back to business in the fourth with crisp offense and were quickly up 10-5. Maren Loe went on serve and proceeded to nail four aces to make the score 15-5. From there, Chicago cruised in to end the match 25-13.
Chicago's service game was on target all night with 11 total aces. Loe served five of the aces to go with her 12 digs, seven kills and two blocks. Setter Nikki DelZenero had a well-rounded match with 36 assists, 15 digs and three aces. Clark was the leader on offense with 12 kills while Vaughn chipped in eight kills and two blocks. Libero Eirene Kim racked up 13 digs.
The Maroons hits the road on Saturday to play a pair of match at the Hope College Triangular, starting at 1 PM (ET) and 3 PM (ET).
