UChicago Splits Day One in Georgia
The University of Chicago women's volleyball team opened the UAA Round Robin #1 with a strong showing, sweeping Rochester in straight sets before falling in four to a tough NYU squad in Atlanta.
ROCHESTER
In the first match of the day, the Maroons came out strong and delivered a commanding 3-0 win over Rochester to extend their win streak to 27 all-time wins over the Yellowjackets .
After a competitive opening set, UChicago took control with dominant performances in sets two and three, fueled by an efficient offense and aggressive serving. Diya Mishra led the way with 14 kills and four service aces, hitting an impressive .400 on the match.Hillary Cheung directed the offense with 16 assists while also chipping in three aces and six digs. Ellie Maxwell also added 13 assists of her own to the Maroons total 33. Maxwell recorded two service aces as well.
UChicago hit .330 as a team and limited Rochester to just a .027 attack percentage, including a -0.056 percentage in the second set. The Maroons also tallied 10 service aces and six blocks in a team generated performance that gave them their first conference win of the season.
NYU
Later in the afternoon, UChicago returned to the court to face NYU in a tightly contested four-set battle. The Maroons dominated the opening set 25-10 with a fast start, but NYU bounced back to take the next three sets.
The game was so tightly matched, the games leading hitter only had seven kills.Thalita Marangon paced the Maroons with six kills and two blocks, while Caroline Sele added three kills. Cheung once again led the offense with 17 assists while also collected eight digs.
Defensively, Klaudia Barbarossa was a standout with a game-high nine digs to go along with two service aces. Despite holding NYU to a .145 hitting percentage, UChicago struggled to maintain offensive consistency, finishing with a .132 hitting mark in the loss.
The Maroons led in almost every statistic on the match. In points, kills, aces, assists, and digs Chicago took the upper hand. In blocks, both teams were tied at one a piece.