UChicago Holds on to Defeat Carthage in Five-Set Thriller
The University of Chicago women's volleyball team picked up their second road win over a CCIW team in the early season as the Maroons took down the Carthage Firebirds in a five-set thriller on Tuesday night.
In their second road trip of the season, the Maroons jumped on the Firebirds early to silence the home crowd. UChicago took a 9-5 lead early in the first set thanks to a pair of kills by
Olivia Zamis, and they continued to hold the lead. After Carthage cut the deficit to 19-18, the Maroons grabbed four consecutive points on a pair of kills from Gabi Spellings to stretch out the lead and seal the first set win 25-20.
In the second set, the teams continued to battle with neither team able to take control of the match. The Maroons won four straight points on kills by Thalita Marangon and Julia Lewkowitz and a service ace from Spellings to take a 15-11 lead. The Firebirds bounced right back to retake the lead at 16-15, and they won six of the last eight points of the set to level the match at one set apiece.
The third set was more of the same for the Maroons and Firebirds as neither team built more than a two-point lead until the very end. With the Maroons trailing 21-19, UChicago leveled the score with a pair of kills by Zamis, and they won the final four points of the set thanks to a pair of kills from Jordan Jones to seal the 25-22 third set.
The Maroons took a big lead in the fourth set at 10-6, but Carthage answered with a five-point service run to keep the set tight. The teams battled throughout the entire set without a team taking a three-point lead, and the Firebirds had a pair of set points that the Maroons fought off with an attack error and another kill by Zamis. Carthage was able to fight back to win the final three points of the set to send the match to a fifth.
Carthage continued to roll with their momentum in the fifth set to take a 5-2 lead, but UChicago rolled to a six-point scoring run thanks to powerful serving from Thalita Marangon and two big kills from Zamis. The Firebirds fought back with two points to cut the score to 8-7, but the Maroons won seven of the final nine points of the match, sealing the fifth set 15-9.
Jones led the attack with a career-high 16 kills, and Thalita Marangon added 12 kills on 36 swings. Both Jones and Marangon recorded double-doubles with 10 digs and 13 digs, respectively.
Olivia Zamis was excellent in the middle with 11 kills and 0 errors on 21 swings from a monstrous .524 hitting percentage. She becomes the first UChicago player to record 0 errors on 20 or more attack attempts since Keeley Kandziora against Hope on October 17, 2024, and she became the first UChicago player to hit over .500 on 20 or more attempts since Amelia Gibbs in the NCAA Tournament win over Centre in 2024. Julia Lewkowitz also finished in double figures with 10 kills and 11 digs.
Gabi Spellings led the team with 3 service aces, Kennedy Cheung tallied 17 digs, and Ellie Maxwell added a double-double with 44 assists and 15 digs.
With the win, the Maroons improve to 5-0 on the season for just the second time in the last seven years.