Freshmen impress, Blue Demons However Fall to 2-4 on the Season.

Coming off a loss to Syracuse in day 1 of the Windy City invitational, the Blue Demons came into Saturday looking for a much better result.

They got off to a better start as the first match of the day was against the host of the Windy City Invite, the Chicago State Cougars. DePaul won this match in 3 straight sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-22). 5th year head coach Nadia Edwards applauded the team's effort with "coming out with the energy early... along with setting the tone." Freshman Jameson MacPhie had the best outing of her young collegiate career, having 7 kills, 3 digs, and recording a .417 attack percentage. Meanwhile, another freshman had a nice outing in the match as well. Myah Reed led the team with the match with 10 kills. 

DePaul is now 16-0 all time against the Chicago State Cougars. This is their first sweep of any opponent since their match against Georgetown back on October 5th, 2013. 

For more on this match, go HERE.

DePaul vs CSU Box Score: HERE.

Then the final match arrived, as the Blue Demons had a date with the UIC Flames. 

While Saige Gallop finished this match with 20 kills, it wasn't enough for the Blue Demons to overcome, as the Flames, which was led by Stephaniee Yancy who had 27 kills in the match, took a 4 set victory (25-13, 25-23, 25-27, 25-20). In the 2nd set, which was only won by the minimum 2 points you must win by in volleyball, showed 13 ties, along with 5 lead changes. The Flames were also led by Nicole Johnson, who totaled a tourney high 60 assists in this match. Junior Colleen Smith for DePaul posted the 2nd double-double of the young season, having 32 assists and 19 digs. Smith and Gallop represented DePaul as they were named to the All-Tournament team. 

For more on this match, click HERE.

DePaul vs UIC Box Score: HERE.

DePaul is now 2-4 on the season, and will travel to Evansville, Indiana this weekend for another 3 game, 2 day tournament. They will play IUPUI Friday, then face Evansville and Central Michigan this Saturday.

-Ryan Fahey

An Orange Crush to Start Windy City Invite for DePaul

While the Blue Demons are looking to bounce off their 1-2 start from the season from hosting the DePaul invitational, they were looking to get on a hot streak beginning at the Windy City invitational, hosted at Chicago State University.

Well... it was a hot streak alright for starters. No air conditioning available in the building and the only ventilation came from industrial fans, made the pre-game sweat almost like in game sweat. Even us broadcasters were warm too.(But you don't care about me, yada yada yada.) So back to the team...

DePaul got things started off in the Windy City Invitational by facing old Big East rival, the Syracuse Orange. The Orange came into the match with a record of 2-1. DePaul Head Coach Nadia Edwards knew a tall task was ahead of her.

Syracuse got off to a 2 set victory over DePaul 25-23, 25-19. For the Blue Demons however, it was junior Saige Gallop leading DePaul and all players with 16 kills through those 2 sets.  Junior Colleen Smith had 22 assists through those 2 sets, leading all players as well for that category.

Set 3 became a whole other ball game at that point. The Blue Demons at one point in the match had a lead as much as 8. The Orange offense, led by Silvi Uatarra and Monika Salkute, where nowhere to be found in the 3rd set, as DePaul cruised in that one, 25-15.

The 4th set came with the Syracuse Orange wanting to close things out in a hurry. Towards the end of the 4th set, DePaul faced a 24-17 deficit. While DePaul will always give it's 100% in every match, the Orange were too much to handle as they took the 4th set 25-18, and the match.

For more on the match and a complete box score, check this LINK.


-DePaul has 2 more matches tomorrow. They will face Chicago State at 12PM, then finish off the invite against UIC at 5PM. These matches can be streamed on chicagolandsportsradio.com.




-Ryan Fahey

Hampton wins DePaul Invite, Blue Demons go 1-2.

DAY 1 MATCHES/RESULTS:

-Hampton Pirates (1-0) vs Bradley Braves (0-1)

5 set victory won by Hampton (24-26, 25-13, 25-17, 21-25, 15-13).
    -On the Pirates side, Vendula Strakova had 25 kills, along with 2 aces and 2 blocks. Kitija Megne also had a nice contribution with 50 assists in the match. For the Braves of Bradley University, Jessie Tulacka had 21 kills in the match for her team, while her teammate Taylor Thiele had 12 kills. Jessica Teel led her team with 30 assists in the match. Also contributing nicely was libero Laura Hathaway, who led all players with 16 digs. For a complete box score with more stats, CLICK HERE.



- Stony Brook Seawolves (1-0) vs DePAUL Blue Demons (0-1)

4 set victory for Stony Brook (22-25, 25-15, 32-30, 25-22)
    - For Stony Brook, the amount of kills in the match were well distributed. Melissa Rigo led the team with 15, Evann Slaughter followed with 11, and Stephanie McFadden had 10. Hannah Dolan, along with Nicole Vogel, helped lead the team in assists in the match. Dolan had 21, Vogel had 18. They combined for 39 of the team's 44 assists in the whole match. Over to the side of the Blue Demons, they had many opportunities in the 4th set to pull away and force a 5th and decisive set in the match, but Stony Brook, who was down by as many as 7 at one point, were able to rally near the end of the 4th set, take that said 4th set and the match. For DePaul, junior Colleen Smith led the team with 40 assists in the match, and also had a career high 4 service aces as well. Saige Gallop led the team in kills with 16. Also with a nice contribution was Myah Reed, who had 10 kills in the match. Libero Lexi Bolotin had 14 digs in the match as well.  For more on this match, go HERE. To see a complete stat line of the match, click HERE.




DAY 2 MATCHES/RESULTS:

-Hampton Pirates (2-0) vs Stony Brook Seawolves (1-1)

3 set victory won by Hampton (25-18, 25-16, 25-19). Kitija Megne had 46 assists, Pirates' assist total was 49, and she had more assists than the entire Stony Brook team. Vendula Strakova had 15 kills in the match, while Sonja Maksmovic had 12 kills. Krista Kraskura led the Pirates with 13 digs. Over to the Seawolves now, Kathy Fletcher led the team with 12 kills, as Nicole Vogel and Hannah Dolan led their team in assists. Vogel had 17 assists, Dolan with 15. Box score and more stats can be seen by clicking HERE.


-Bradley Braves (0-2) vs DePAUL BLUE DEMONS (1-1)

4 Set VICTORY FOR THE BLUE DEMONS! (25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 27-25). Junior setter Colleen Smith had 35 assists in the match. The team total for assists was 44. Saige Gallop had 11 kills in the match, followed by Rachel Breault and Myah Reed who both had 9, and Colleen Smith with 8. Lexi Chanos had 10 digs, Colleen Smith had 9. Smith is showing throughout the invitational what it takes to be a leader on and off the court. The "gameface" is always on. To get more on the victory, read HERE. For the Braves, Afton Sobasky had 36 assists in the match, while Jessie Tulacka led with 19 kills. Taylor Thiele had 12 kills and 7 digs in the match. For the box score and more stats, click HERE. Bradley put a scare to DePaul near the end of the 4th set to try to force a 5th and decisive set. The Blue Demons in past history have been known to give up leads and lose sets before. But this time around, the Blue Demons held their ground for the 4th set victory to get their 1st win on the young 2014 season.


-Bradley Braves (0-3) vs Stony Brook Seawolves (2-1)

5 Set victory for Stony Brook (22-25, 25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 15-11). To the side of the Bradley Braves, Taylor Thiele led her team with 14 kills and 9 digs in the 5 set loss. Afton Sobasky had 46 assists in the match. For the Seawolves, they were lead by Kathy Fletcher (18 kills, 9 digs), Melissa Rigo (14 kills, 10 digs), Nicole Vogel (32 assists). Also contributing nicely was Evann Slaughter, who had 10 kills in the 5 set victory over the Braves. More stats and box score can be seen HERE.


-Hampton Pirates (3-0) vs DePAUL BLUE DEMONS (1-2)

4 Set victory for the Hampton Pirates (15-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-22). With this victory for Hampton, they went undefeated in the DePaul invite at a record of 3-0. Vendula Strakova, who had 27 kills in the match, was named the MVP of the entire tourney. Other notables on the stat sheet would include Kitija (49 assists), Krista Kraskura (13 kills, 14 digs), and Sonja Maksimovic (10 kills, 14 digs). For the Blue Demons (1-2), it was Saige Gallop who led her team in kills in the match with 16. Gallop was named to the all-tournament team as well. Gallop had 46 total kills in the 2014 invite, leading all Blue Demon players. Also in the match, freshman Rachel Breault had 7 kills and 9 digs, Lexi Chanos led DePaul in the match with 17 digs. More on the match can be read HERE, and the box score, along with more stats can be found HERE.

FINAL STANDINGS:
Hampton Pirates 3-0 (Tournament Champs)
Stony Brook Seawolves 2-1 (Runner-Up)
DePAUL BLUE DEMONS 1-2 (3rd Place)
Bradley Braves 0-4 (4th Place)

2014 DePaul Invitational MVP:  Vendula Strakova (Hampton)

All Tournament Team:

- Vendula Strakova (Hampton)

- Saige Gallop (DePaul)

- Jessie Talucka (Bradley)

- Kathy Fletcher (Stony Brook)

-Ryan Fahey