Volleyball survives in five against UIC

Box Score (PDF)

NORMAL, Illinois – The No. 25 Marquette University women's volleyball team held on for a five-set win (26-24, 25-21, 20-25, 20-25,15-9) over the University of Illinois-Chicago in the Red & White Invitational on Friday evening at Redbird Arena.

Graduate students Savannah Rennie and Taylor Wolf each collected 16 kills on the night to lead the Golden Eagles (4-0), who held on for the win after taking an early 2-0 lead. Outside hitter Hope Werch added 13 kills and now sits 11 from reaching the 1,000 mark in her Marquette career. She would become just the 13th MU player to reach the plateau.

"I want to give UIC's staff and their defense and a lot of credit," Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said. "They are very well coached and their libero played outstanding."

MU hit .206 in the match, while the Flames (1-3) hit a combined .174 and recorded 14 blocks. The Golden Eagles had 14 service errors on the night and hit -.053 (11-13-38) in a 25-20 fourth set loss with 13 hitting errors against just 11 kills.

Marquette would rebound from the fourth set loss by hitting .529 (10-1-17) in the pivotal fifth set for a 15-9 victory and the 3-2 match win.

"In the fourth we went extremely high error but I was very impressed with our bounce back and offensive efficiency in the fifth," Theis said. "We have a quick turnaround tomorrow and we need to recover quickly and get ready for the next one."

Both teams struggled offensively in the first set, but Marquette was able to pull out a 26-24 win after fending off a UIC set-point at 24-23. UIC was limited to a a hitting percentage of .190, while the Golden Eagles hit. 219 during set one.

UIC was led by senior Paolo Santiago with 17 kills, while Martina Delucchi and Becca Oldendorf each reached double digits with 10.

The Golden Eagles and Flames have met 17 times previously and UIC now owns a 12-6 series advantage. Marquette also captured a five-set victory in the previous match on Oct. 3, 2001 in Chicago.

Marquette continues in the Red & White Invitational with a pair of 1 p.m. matchups with Ohio and the host-Redbirds on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The match against Illinois State will be broadcast live through ESPN+ and live statistics will also be available through StatBroadcast for both contests. Live video of Marquette's neutral site match against the Bobcats can be found on the Marquette Athletics YouTube channel.

Keep up with the Marquette University women's volleyball program through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteVB) and Instagram (@MarquetteVB) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteVolleyball).