The Dominican University women's volleyball team pulled out a thrilling five-set (24-26, 25-13, 25-21, 21-25, 16-14) win over the visiting Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons on Friday night in River Forest, Illinois. The win pushed the Stars to 15-8 overall and 5-0 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) while dropping the Falcons to 16-5 overall and 5-1 in the NACC to put Dominican in the driver seat in the conference standings as the lone undefeated team in conference play.
The first set was a see-saw battle all the way to 24-24 before back-to-back errors by the Stars handed the Falcons an early lead in the best-of-five matchup.
The Stars roared back in the second set, hitting a blistering .469 in the set to even the match at one set apiece. Carri Chambers knocked down six kills in the set to lead the comeback. As a team, the Stars collected 17 kills to just two errors on 32 total attacks. With the set tied at 2-2, Dominican went on a 10-4 run to open a 12-6 lead and never looked back. The Stars tallied 14 digs in the set to hold the Falcons to just a .161 hitting percentage.
Dominican carried their momentum into the third set, opening a 9-2 advantage before Concordia Wisconsin raced back behind a 10-3 run to even the score at 12-12. Caitlen Foote settled the Stars down with one of her four kills in the set to spark a 5-0 run for Dominican but again the Falcons raced back, evening the score at 19-19. Freshman Kendyl Todd put Dominican back ahead momentarily but the Falcons scored the next two points to take a 21-20 lead. Back-to-back errors let Dominican back in the lead and then Foote closed out the set with three straight kills as Dominican opened a 2-1 lead.
The Stars overcame ten hitting errors in the third set with good defense. Olivia Szuskiewicz collected seven of her match-high 25 digs in the set to lead the effort. Dominican tallied 22 digs in the set, forcing the Falcons into 11 total errors in the set, including five ball-handling errors.
Facing a 2-1 deficit, Concordia Wisconsin pushed the pressure aside in the fourth set, knocking down 16 kills, six by Britta Duchow and five from Hannah Griffiths, never trailing in the set and evening the match at 2-2 to force a winner-take-all fifth set.
Dominican jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fifth set, forcing a Falcons' timeout. After trading points, the Falcons rattled off six straight points to take a 9-8 lead. Foote evened the score with a kill, but a Dominican serving error and back-to-back Falcon kills put the Stars in a hole 12-9. After trading kills, kills by Maddi Zanoni and Chambers pulled Dominican within 13-12 before a Falcons' hitting error evened the score at 13-13. A Dominican serving error setup match-point for the Falcons but Chambers put the match on hold with one of her three kills in the fifth set. Chambers then setup match point for the Stars with another kill before Todd closed out the victory for the Stars.
Christina Wilson continued to run a well-balanced attack for the Stars, dishing out a match-high 62 assists. Wilson spread the attack attempts with five players posting double-digit kills led by Foote who knocked down a match-high 18 kills. Chambers and Todd added 15 kills apiece while Zanoni tallied 12 and Tessa Griparis added ten.
Defensively, Wilson, Chambers and Foote each rounded out double-double efforts with 16, 14 and 11 digs respectively while Becky Honerlaw added 19 digs in the Dominican back row.
For the Falcons, Ashley Jehlicka led the way with her sixth triple-double of the season. Jehlicka posted ten kills, 17 assists and ten digs while Griffiths collected a team-high 15 kills.
The Stars are back in action on Saturday, traveling to Milwaukee to take on the Alverno College Inferno. The match is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. with Dominican looking to run its current winning streak to four matches.
