UE Defeats SIUE And Kent State
 FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The opening day went about as perfect as one could expect with the University of Evansville volleyball team earning a pair of 3-0 shutouts to open the Purdue Fort Wayne Invitational. UE opened the season with a win over SIU Edwardsville before defeating Kent State on Friday afternoon.
MATCH 1 – UE 3, SIUE 0
An early opening day start saw the Purple Aces come out on fire, taking down SIU Edwardsville by a 3-0 final. Alondra Vazquez paced all players with 14 kills while Giulia Cardona finished her college debut with 11. Melanie Feliciano added eight kills. Vazquez also led her squad with nine digs with Blakeley Freeman and Feliciano recording seven apiece. Another freshman – Taya Haffner – had a match-high 33 assists.
Evansville turned a 5-5 tie into a 9-6 lead in the first set and would not relinquish that advantage. Feliciano got the rally started with a kill before Laura Ruiz added a service ace. The Cougars kept it close, cutting the gap to a pair at 15-13, but UE countered with a 5-0 stretch. Feliciano notched her first ace of the season while Madisyn Steele and Vazquez added kills. From there, the Aces held strong to finish with a 25-19 decision. Cardona and Vazquez had five kills apiece in the opening frame.
Up by a 6-5 score to begin the second set, UE reeled off five points in a row to take an 11-5 lead. Feliciano registered a kill and ace in the stretch. SIUE made its way back within four (15-11), but another game-changing stretch saw Evansville respond with a nine in a row before taking a 25-12 victory. Freeman did the serving during the rally, picking up the first ace of her college career. Cardona and Vazquez picked up two more kills to put the Aces up by a 2-0 score.
The Cougars put their top effort together in game three, wrestling away an 11-9 lead. UE countered with four in a row as Vazquez picked up her second ace of the day. The third kill of the match from Steele helped Evansville extend its lead to 17-13, but SIU Edwardsville made one final attempt to come back, forcing a UE error to cut the deficit to 21-20.  Feliciano ended the stretch with her 8th kill before UE clinched the sweep with a 25-22 win.
An efficient offensive performance saw Evansville hit .307 in the match while picking up a total of eight service aces. The defense held the SIUE offense to just .157.
MATCH 2 – UE 3, Kent State 0
With 25 kills in just three sets, Alondra Vazquez lifted the Purple Aces to another 3-0 sweep. She hit .489 in the win over Kent State while picking up four service aces. Cardona finished with nine kills while Feliciano added eight. Haffner registered 35 assists and a pair of kills while four Aces tallied nine digs.
Neither team gave an inch in the first set as the score was tied 15 times, leading to a 16-16 score. Evansville took the first 3-point lead in the game when Vazquez, Feliciano and Haffner recorded kills to give the Aces a 19-16 lead. UE continued to hold the edge and had set point with a 24-20 edge. That is when the Golden Flashes rallied, posting four in a row to tie it up. Vazquez took control at that point, posting her 9th kill of the set before clinching the 26-24 win with a service ace.
Using the momentum gained from taking the first set, Evansville posted seven of the first eight points to take a 7-1 lead in game two. It was Vazquez coming through again with a kill and ace. Kent State cut the deficit in half when an Alex Haffner kill made it a 9-6 game but UE answered with three in a row to go back up by six points. From there, it was all Evansville. A 4-point stretch saw Vazquez record two kills and two service aces to make it a 21-10 tally before a late kill from Feliciano clinched the 25-14 win.
Kent State scored the opening two points of the third game, but the tides turned with another huge Evansville rally. With the score knotted at 8-8, UE embarked on an 11-2 run to go up by a score of 19-10. Four additional Vazquez kills highlighted the run. The Golden Flashes did not go away quietly, making a furious run to get within three points before Vazquez capped off the match with her 25th kill to clinch win #2 of the season.
On Saturday, the Aces look for the weekend sweep when the face the host Purdue Fort Wayne at 10 a.m. CT.
