UChicago Sweeps in Day One of the Rosalie Resch Invitational
The University of Chicago volleyball team completed a Friday night sweep in their home opening night at the Ratner Athletic Center. On the first day of the Rosalie Rusch Invitational, the Maroons topped Earlham College, 3-1, before completing the sweep with a 3-0 win over Rose-Hulman.
In the opening match of the day, UChicago came out firing as three different Maroons recorded double-digit hitting days in the four-set match. Trading points early on, the Maroons jumped out to a 20-16 advantage in the first set after back-to-back Quaker errors. A kill from Gabi Spellings made it 23-17, and an ace from Adelee Kaiton brought UChicago within match point. UChicago took the first set 25-19 off another Quaker service error to take the early 1-0 lead.
The Maroons came from behind late in set two to take the 2-0 lead heading into the third. After trailing 17-13, UChicago went on a dominant 12-2 run to win the second. Ellie Maxwell began the rally, connecting with Olivia Zamis, who recorded almost two consecutive kills to bring the Maroons within two. Earlham responded with a break to make it 18-16, but Julia Lewkowitz slammed a ball down the right side, bringing the momentum back to Chicago. Consecutive kills by Zamis and Jordan Jones closed out the set 25-19 in favor of the Maroons.
UChicago dropped set three but came battling back to win in the fourth. Jones opened the final set with back-to-back kills to make it a 2-0 game. The Maroons and the Quakers then traded points until Chicago rode a 4-0 run to make it 13-6. From then on, Earlham struggled to catch up to the Maroons as another kill from Zamis gave UChicago its biggest lead at nine. To close out the final set, setter Maxwell snuck a ball into enemy territory for the 25-18 win.
Jones led the Maroons with 11 kills. Thalita Marangon and Julia Lewkowitz each finished with 10 while combining for 25 digs and an ace.
In their first sweep of the year, the Maroons dominated the Fightin' Engineers to complete the 2-0 day.
Leading both teams with 12 kills in the match, Lewkowitz jump-started a 4-0 run to begin the first set. The Fightin' Engineers came back to keep it close, but an attack error gave UChicago a five-point lead as the Maroons soared to a 25-15 victory.
Rose-Hulman took an early 7-6 lead in set two, but just as their momentum was building, UChicago came roaring back. Three kills from Lewkowitz and a couple of errors by the Fightin' Engineers jumped the Maroons to a 15-7 lead. The deficit was too much for Rose as Chicago cruised to a 25-14 lead, sealing the final point with a kill from Madeline Lambros.
Set three was a battle as Rose-Hulman refused to go down without a fight. The score swayed back and forth between the two before the Maroons took a 14-9 lead. Three attack errors later, the Fightin' Engineers were down by seven, but came back to take a 21-19 advantage over UChicago. Olivia Zamis connected with Maxwell to ignite the Maroons back into the ballgame and tie it up again at 23. Jones helped close out the match with two kills to give UChicago match point, and a block by Gabi Spellings and Marangon capped off the 26-24 win.
In the win, Jones and Zamis finished with 16 combined kills as the Maroons hit .220 for the match. Ellie Maxwell totaled 28 assists and 13 digs, and Kennedy Cheung recorded 14 digs.
The Maroons improve to 3-0 overall this season.