CHICAGO -- The University of Chicago volleyball team closed out its regular season on Saturday afternoon with a pair of matches against North Central (IL) and (RV) UW-Platteville. The Maroons held their own in both contests, but they came up short in both.

The Maroons opened the day against North Central in a tightly contested match. UChicago came out hot in the first set after jumping to an early lead behind kills from Diya Mishra, Olivia Zamis, and Caroline Sele. Midway through the first set, UChicago led 15-12, but the Cardinals answered back.

North Central responded with a late surge to reclaim the momentum from the Maroons. As the Cardinals took the lead, 24-23, Sele slammed a kill to tie it up at 24, but North Central answered with two points of its own to take set one 26-24.

In set two, UChicago struggled to find its rhythm, falling behind early, and the Maroons were unable to come back to take the lead in the set.

UChicago bounced back in the third set, producing its best hitting percentage of the match at .313. Olivia Ip and Mishra finished off a couple of big kills to help UChicago take a 20-19 lead. However, the Cardinals again found their opening and won the set 25-23 to complete the sweep.

Sele led the team with eight kills while Mishra and Ip followed behind with seven of their own. Sele also contributed three blocks to her stat line. Adelee Kaiton led the defense with 10 digs.

In the second match of the day, UChicago found its footing early but struggled to maintain its rhythm as the game progressed.

After UW-Platteville took the first set 25-22, UChicago bounced back, pulling ahead to 14-10 behind big plays by Ip and Thalita Marangon. The defense held strong down the stretch of the set, and Mishra closed out the frame with a kill to take set two 25-23.

The Maroons fought hard over the final two sets, but the Pioneers were too much in the end as UW-Platteville capped off the day with the four-set win.

Mishra led the Maroons with 11 kills. Sele recorded 10, and Marangon closed out the top three with six kills. Gaby Miriki made her presence known, recording four blocks to lead the UChicago defense. Ellie Maxwell and Grace Xu combined for 33 assists.

With the losses, the Maroons fall to 13-12 on the season. UChicago returns to action on Friday, November 7, as the team travels to Lake Forest for a non-conference showdown with the Foresters.