 "Photo: Ashur Joseph")
UIC volleyball was stopped in their tracks this Saturday, falling 1-3 to top-seeded Cleveland State on their home court. This came the day after advancing to the Horizon League Tournament semifinals with a 3-1 win over forth-seed, Butler.
The Flames (16-18) won their last match of the season Friday against the Butler Bulldogs (21-15) in an extremely tight match (13-25, 25-21, 25-20, 28-26).
Opening the first set with a 4-0 Flames lead, the Bulldogs quickly took control converting a 6-8 deficit into a 23-11 lead, sparked in part by the momentum of 3 service aces by Kelsey Labrum and six Jessica Wolfe kills.
The next two sets were neck-and-neck as each team held the other within 3 points and traded leads numerous times. ?Errors plagued Butler in set 2, allowing the Flames to inch ahead by keeping it clean and playing solid defense, giving up only 4 errors to Butler's 11.
Casie Sullivan plagued Butler in set 3, as she brought down a meteor shower of kills, netting 8 of her 14 kills in the match. ?Sullivan ended the match with an amazing .452 kill percentage due to her error free attacking effort.
The real excitement Friday evening came in set 4 when the Flames, trailing most of the match, decided they'd had enough when Butler brought the game to a 24-20 game point. ?Lana Lobdell got the fire started for the Flames with a kill and a block. Epiphany Davis and Nicole Allgood threw up a solid wall of blocks against the Bulldogs cruising to a 28-26 victory on a 3 point run.
Unfortunately, Friday's nail-biter left the Flames without the nails they would need to hang on against Cleveland State (26-7) Saturday, as they lost their grip and plummeted to a 3-1 loss (11-25, 25-19, 18-25, 14-25).
The Vikings are armed with some of the league's best talent, including Beth Greulich, Horizon League Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Chuck Voss, two league first team honorees, and a league all-newcomer team honoree. ?But it was the breakout performances of two lesser known players that would own the outing.
The Flames posted 28 kill errors and only 8 blocks up against Cleveland State's 20 blocks led by 6'4" Viking Senior Megan Barhorst and 6'3" Junior Amy Benz. ?Benz also added a match high 15 kills to Greulich's 13 kills and setter Jordan Goad's 6 kills, bring the Flames season to an abrupt halt.
While Cleveland State moves on to the Horizon League Tournament final the Flames return home looking forward to what promises to be an even better season next year.
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