Seniors Lead Blue Demons Past Chicago State

DePaul 3, Chicago State 0

CHICAGO – Seniors Ellen Hayes, Morgan Ingersoll and Deane Gibson led the DePaul volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-26, 30-24, 30-24) victory over Chicago State, Tuesday at the Jacoby Athletic Center.  The senior trio combined for 30 kills while the win snaps the Blue Demons nine match slide.

Season and career records fell in the Blue Demons (5-16) win.  The team set a season-record with 11 service aces, with junior Stacy Pando and Gibson each registering four aces.  Freshman setter Sarah Cullen dished out a career-high 39 assists while junior Aly Zavitz notched a season-high .312 (7-2-16) attack percentage.

The Blue Demons and Cougars traded points in the early portion of game one.  DePaul raced  out to a 13-10 advantage but CSU strung together four points and took a 14-13 lead to force a Blue Demon timeout.  Following the timeout, the teams continued to trade sideouts before the Blue Demons took  26-24 lead on back-to-back kills from Hayes. Chicago State called two late timeouts, but they were unable to stop DePaul's offensive momentum as the Blue Demons won the first game 30-25.  DePaul hit a sizzling .359 as a team and was led by Hayes, who notched six kills.

DePaul served its way to victory in the second set, registering six aces on its way to 30-24 win.  Pando and Gibson each served up a pair of aces with Maureen Zigulich and Cullen each adding one.  The Blue Demons hitting cooled off in the second set as they hit .114 as a team.  Ingersoll led DePaul with six kills while the defense was paced by Zigulich who netted seven digs. 

Following the break, CSU (0-21)  jumped out to a 10-7 lead before the Blue Demons went on 6-3 run and tied the third game at 13.  DePaul continued to build its lead and led by as many as eight points on the way to a 30-24 victory.   Ingersoll and Zavitz combined for eight of the teams 14 kills in the final frame

Jennifer Hoffman and Shamara Clark led Chicago State with nine kills apiece.

Ingersoll paced DePaul with 15 kills while Zigulich led the defense with 19 digs.

The Blue Demons return to BIG EAST action on Friday at Notre Dame.  The first serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. (CST) and will be televised on Comcast Local in the South Bend area.

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