No. 16 UChicago Picks Up Pair of Wins at IIT Triangular
The 16th-ranked University of Chicago women's volleyball team cruised to a two-game sweep on Saturday afternoon, without dropping a single set. The Maroons took down Marian University before defeating the host, Illinois Tech, at the Illinois Tech Triangular.
UChicago jumped out to a dominant start after taking full control of the first two sets, capturing the back-to-back set wins with identical 25-16 scores. The Maroons held the Sabres to a .124 hitting percentage throughout the first two sets while recording a .243 for themselves as a team.
Down 2-0, Marian put up a fight in the third set. Before UChicago could extend its lead, the Sabres tied the score and took the lead at 14-13 off consecutive service aces. The Maroons answered as Gabi Spellings and Jordan Jones recorded a combined three kills and an ace to put the advantage quickly back to UChicago at 17-14. Marian stayed within striking distance for the rest of the match, but lost the final set after suffering back-to-back errors for points 24 and 25.
Recording just 52 total kills in the match, the Maroons were led by Julia Lewkowitz and Adelee Kaiton, who combined for 17 attacks. Ellie Maxwell recorded 19 assists as Grace Xu made her season debut with 11 assists.
Carrying the momentum from the first game, the Maroons showed no signs of slowing down heading into their second match of the day.
In the closest set of the afternoon, the Maroons and the Scarlet Hawks battled the first set to extra points. UChicago held an early lead at 6-3 as Maxwell set up Olivia Zamis for her first kill of the match. IIT kept it within two before the Maroons recorded three consecutive points for a five-point lead. As points were traded between the two, a kill from Thalita Marangon put the Maroons up 24-23, but the Scarlet Hawks stayed alive to tie it at 24. The match went all the way to 28 points as Julia Lewkowitz slammed back-to-back kills to give UChicago the first set, 28-26.
The Maroons kept their hot streak, opening up the second set with six consecutive points for an early 6-0 lead. As IIT continued to battle back, the early lead proved to be too much to overcome. Another kill from Lewkowitz made it 18-16 and jump-started the Maroons' 8-1 scoring run to close out the set 25-17.
UChicago kept the momentum rolling into the third set, maintaining control through a late Scarlet Hawks push that brought the match within three. After another service error by IIT, the Maroons ran away with the match, securing the victory, 25-19.
Lewkowitz once again led the Maroons in attack with 14 kills. Kaiton recorded nine, and Marangon finished with eight. Kennedy Cheung controlled the defense for UChicago with 23 of the Maroons' total 63 digs.
With the pair of wins, the Maroons improve to 16-1 overall this year.