Volleyball shocks 19th-ranked Elmhurst on the road

The volleyball team’s season has certainly been a pleasant surprise this year, on pace to win over 20 games for the first time since 1996. Yet the Maroons’ (15-7) upset of 19th-ranked Elmhurst (18-5) came as a complete surprise, especially considering how dramatic a comeback the team made against the more experienced Blue Jays.

Missing third-year libero Tracie Kenyon and having lost the first two games 13-30 and 23-30, the Maroons had their backs against the wall. Chicago, rallying on the back of first-year Colette Hausoul’s 19 kills and third-year Katie Meinhover’s 16, came back in the third game with ten-straight points to open a 10-2 lead and easily win 30-24.

The fourth game was much closer with the score tied 26-26, but a critical Elmhurst serving error gave control to the Maroons, who won 30-28. They followed with a 15-12 win to shut the door on the Blue Jays.

Though the team’s offensive attack was integral to regaining momentum, the defense stepped up in Kenyon’s absence. Third-year Rose Kulczycki filled in with a career-high 25 digs, and first-year Nikki Sindy added 15 of her own to go with 44 assists.

The win marked Chicago’s fifth-straight victory and 10th in 11 games. Continuing to play at the top of their offensive and defensive games will be key to this weekend’s UAA Round Robin, to be held at Ratner. They face Carnegie Mellon (15-3, 1-2) and Rochester (17-5, 2-1) on Saturday, before facing Case Western (9-15, 0-3) and Washington (15-4, 3-0) on Sunday.

UAA honors tennis pair

Part of the renewed tennis program, the men’s and women’s top players picked up their first-career UAA Athlete of the Week awards.

Second-year Ade Omodele-Lucien earned honors for her 6-0 week (3-0 singles, 3-0 doubles with first-year Michele Parad). Her perfection over three games helped the women to a 2-1 team record.

Third-year transfer Ward Bortz garnered the award for advancing to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s regional championship match on October 1-4. Fifth-seeded Bortz won his first six matches before losing 3-6, 3-6 in the title match.

Tamillow makes D-III Team of the Week for defense

Third-year defensive end Rob Tamillow was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week on Wednesday, the first such award in his career. His eight tackles, four tackles-for-loss, and three sacks helped the Maroons dominate the line of scrimmage in the 24-16 loss to Wash U. Chicago allowed a UAA-record-low minus-16 yards rushing.

Men’s cross country holds 9th rank, women drop one slot

Despite incomplete rosters and a silly, through-the-woods format resulting in the men’s and women’s worst meets of the fall (9th and 12th out of 16), their national standings barely changed. The men remain ninth, their best poll position in the program’s history. The women dropped one spot to 24th, their second-straight one-spot slip.

—Sean Ahmed