The Dominican University women's volleyball team hosted the 11^th ranked University of Chicago Maroons and the #16 Elmhurst College Bluejays for a triangular on Wednesday evening, with the Stars topping the Maroons in five sets (25-16, 27-25, 17-25, 23-25, 15-10) in the opener but falling to the Bluejays in five sets (22-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-8).

"I was really impressed with a lot of things last night," commented Jeanne Czipri, the Stars' head women's volleyball coach. "The coaches weren't entirely sure how we would bounce back after a disappointing weekend in Kenosha but were very pleased that we came out with a lot of aggression and determination in both matches.  Both opponents played extremely well last night, and with all three matches going to 5 sets, it shows the level of play that was displayed in the gym."
 
The split pushes the Stars to 9-5 on the season, including a 3-3 mark against teams ranked in the AVCA Division III Women's Volleyball Top 25.  Dominican returns to action this weekend, traveling to Mequon, Wisconsin, for the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) - Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) Crossover where the Stars will battle Coe and Wartburg colleges on Friday before meeting Central College and Buena Vista University on Saturday.
 
Dominican 3, Chicago 2
 
The Stars, behind 19 kills from Carri Chambers (Winnebago, Ill.), 16 kills for Kendyl Todd (Crete, Ill.) and 15 kills for Alex Kisten (Huntley, Ill.), hit .246 for the match as Dominican upended the 11^th-ranked Maroons.
 
The Stars fell behind early in the first set, trailing 5-1 before beginning to whittle down the Chicago lead.  Trailing 12-9, Dominican went on a 9-2 run that saw three kills by Todd and two by Kisten along with a Megan Parker ace to open an 18-14 and never looked back.
 
For the set, Dominican hit .250, knocking down 16 kills while holding the Maroons to just six kills.
 
Dominican rode the momentum into the second set, knocking down 20 kills, including six from Chambers and five from Todd.
 
The Stars led early in the set before, including a 15-8 lead, before the Maroons went on a 6-1 run to narrow the gap and eventually overtake the Stars.  Dominican battled back in front, setting up set point at 24-23 but Maren Loe evened the score with a kill and Chicago then set up set point after a kill by Jasmine Mobley but Dominican staved off set point on a kill by Christina Wilson (Homer Glen, Ill.) and then capped off the set with back-to-back kills by Chambers and Maddi Zanoni (Hudsonville, Mich.).
 
Chicago never trailed in the third set and then led for much of the fourth to force a tie-breaking fifth set.  In set five, Dominican opened a 6-2 lead capped by a kill by Chambers to force the Maroons to use their first timeout.
 
The Maroons scored the first two points out of the timeout, but Chambers settled Dominican down, sparking a five-point run for the Stars and the Stars never looked back.
 
Wilson finished the match with 57 assists while defensively the senior setter finished with 18 digs for a double-double.  Caitlen Foote (Dexter, Mich.) collected a match-high 27 digs while Tessa Griparis (Belleair, Fla.) hit a blistering .429 with seven kills on 14 attempts with just one error for the Stars in the winning effort.

Czipri on the win over Chicago: "We were able to execute our game plan fairly well versus Chicago, who is always a team we battle well with.  Maren Loe had a fantastic night, but Caitlen was a major factor in our ability to limit Maren's point scoring, which was critical to our success.  Caitlen's defense kept us in that game 100%.  Our outsides (Carri and Alex) played well, but we were able to get decent 1st touches to get our middles and other hitters involved, which we need to do.  That was a big win for us."
 
Elmhurst 3, Dominican 2
 
Behind a rowdy and enthusiastic home crowd, Dominican gave the 16^th-ranked Elmhurst College Bluejays all they could handle, taking the opening two sets of the match to put the Bluejays in a 2-0 hole.
 
Dominican hit .344 in the opening set behind the Stars' middles with Griparis and Todd collecting four kills apiece in set one.  The Stars' defense then led the effort in the second set, collecting 21 digs and two blocks, forcing the Bluejays into nine errors in the set.
 
The Bluejays' offense then heated up throughout the remainder of the match, hitting .214, .379 and .389 respectively in the third, fourth and fifth sets while the Stars appeared to run out of steam in their second five-set match of the night.
 
Wilson dished out 51 assists while five different attackers reached double-digit kills in the loss for the Stars.  Kisten led the way with 13 kills while Griparis, Todd and Chambers tallied 11 kills apiece and Zanoni added ten.
 
Foote again led the defensive effort, collecting a match-high 24 digs.

Czipri on the loss to Elmhurst: "The most important thing was the mental barrier we broke through with Elmhurst.  They are a team that we struggled to compete mentally with last year.  We came out firing on all cylinders early.  Our home crowd played a major factor in that as well, and the girls fed off of the energy from the stands. Tessa had a great game offensively, which is vital to our team playing well.  If we can limit our untimely unforced errors and consistently attack aggressively, we can win matches like that. "