The Dominican University women's volleyball team picked up a pair of wins on Saturday in Chicago, topping the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks in four sets (18-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-15) in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play before sweeping the Kalamazoo College Hornets (25-17, 25-23, 25-23) in a non-conference tilt.
 
"It's always great to pick up two wins," said Cameron Andrew, the Stars' first-year head coach. "We have had to play through a bunch of injuries this weekend.  That put us in a tough spot with Gabija [Sinickaite] and Haley [Notzen] having to play out of position.  We found a way to grind through and finish the weekend 3-0."
 
Sinickaite had a huge day, leading the Stars in kills in both matches.  The freshman collected 14 kills, including five in the fourth set, in Dominican's win over Illinois Tech before knocking down 11 in the three-set win over Kalamazoo.  On the day, Sinickaite hit .271 with 25 kills on 59 total attacks while committing just nine errors.
 
Summer Smith overcame a shaky morning match to knock down ten kills in the win over Kalamazoo, adding a trio of service aces for a total of 13 points in the winning effort.
 
On the day, Dominican served a total of 16 aces, ten coming in the win over the Hornets.  Sophomore setter Anastasia Labadessa finished the day with five, collecting two against Illinois Tech and three against Kalamazoo.
 
Defensively, the Stars held the Scarlet Hawks and Hornets to a combined .131 attack percentage for the day.  Dominican tallied 113 digs for the day with Sarah Lychock and Smith collecting 20 digs apiece while Lauren LaVigne finished the day with 15 digs and Megan Parker and Madeline Morrow added 14 digs each.
 
"Throughout the year we really try to take it one match—even one set—at a time," added Andrew, "but we are getting down to it now and we can put ourselves in position to secure a home conference tournament match. We've got to get healthy and iron out the wrinkles in our serve receive that hurt us a little today."
 
Dominican will have nearly a week to regroup, returning to action next Friday, October 19, at Lakeland University in a conference matchup with the Muskies.  Dominican then returns home next Saturday, October 20, hosting the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors.